Trail Off Tuesdays: The Dancing Plague of 1518

Send us a textA city built on stone and certainty watched its streets turn into a stage. In the hot summer of 1518, a woman in Strasbourg began to dance, mechanical, relentless, and impossible to stop, and within weeks hundreds followed, their feet torn and faces locked in pain. We trace how a single, baffling act became a public crisis, and why officials, doctors, and priests each tried to tame it with wildly different tools. If strange history, medical mysteries, and cultural psychology fascinate you, press play and wander the stranger paths of the past with us. If this story moved you, subscribe, share with a curious friend, and leave a review to help others find the show.Support the show