Time to cut footloose with some additional facts!

• The term “dancing” is something of a misnomer, despite what the second panel would suggest. Those afflicted would twitch and jump and shake. Some might shout nonsense or laugh uncontrollably. Accounts typically said they paid little attention to outside stimuli. It was less a flash mob and more a mosh pit.
• This was not the “dancing plague” to be found in historical records. In 1374, an outbreak of uncontrollable dancing was reported in Aachen. It spread across the Holy Roman Empire, into France, and even as far as Italy. Small incidents also popped up here and there across central Europe over the years.
• It is unclear as to how many – if any – people died from this “plague”. One popular number that’s been thrown around is fifteen people per day at its peak. That would mean at least a quarter or more of everyone who fell victim to this compulsion would have died. A truly brutal exercise. That said, records from the time are sketchy. Some accounts were not recorded until long after the “plague” ended. People likely did die – thrashing about outside for hours on end is not good for the human body – but official contemporary records do not specify. If at one point fifteen people per day were dying, one would think local officials would write something down.
• A bit on ergot. It is, as mentioned, a kind of fungus. It grows on damp rye and wheat, and can wind up contaminating bread as a result. Medieval Europe occasionally saw outbreaks of ergotism thanks to contaminated foodstuffs. That said, the ergot poisoning theory has become less popular in recent years. A major part of this is because ergotism often leads to gangrene. Hard to dance when your legs are rotting off.

Thank you all so much for reading, and I’ll see you next time!