Dance Until You Die

In July 1518, a woman named Frau Troffea stepped into a street in Strasbourg and began to dance. She didn't stop. Within a week, dozens had joined her. Within a month, hundreds. They danced until their feet bled, until they collapsed from exhaustion or stroke. Historian Eleanor Vance reconstructs this bizarre and macabre event in "Dance Until You Die." Vance moves beyond the supernatural explanations of the time (demonic possession) and the simple medical theories (ergot poisoning). Instead, she frames the Dancing Plague as the ultimate example of "Mass Psychogenic Illness" caused by extreme collective stress—famine, disease, and religious terror. The book draws parallels to modern instances of mass hysteria, from the "Havana Syndrome" to outbreaks of tics on TikTok. It is a study of the power of the mind to break the body, showing how belief and fear can be as contagious as any virus. A gripping narrative of a town driven mad by its own misery.