From pre-historic to primitive, to modern, to contemporary, and back to povera, with elegance, seduction, tribalism, or spiritualism, dance seems to be a global, perhaps universal phenomenon serving as celebration of joy or pain, to free or incarcerate body or soul.
During my continuing search for causes for celebration, I came across this obscure moment of dance, thus these Clubhouse rooms for dance music.
The Aristipposian Poet
alludes to the historic event known as
Dance Plague of 1518
with
Dance, Dance, Dance
August 2 at 3 pm EST
on Clubhouse
The program may include a wide range of danceable music.
Minuet
Bharatanatyam
Roxy Music
Michael Jackson
Waltz
Celia Cruz
Bee Gees
Peter Fox
Talking Heads
David Bowie
Queen
Blondie
Björk
Afro-Cuban
Ballet
Hungarian Dances
Russian Dances
Irish Dances
Scottish Dances
King Crimson
Odette Adams
AC/DC
Punk
During an event in 1518, known as the Dancing Plague, hundreds of citizens of Strasbourg (then a free city within the Holy Roman Empire, now in France) danced uncontrollably and apparently unwillingly for days on end; the mania lasted for about two months before ending as mysteriously as it began.
In July 1518, a woman whose name was given as Frau (Mrs.) Troffea (or Trauffea) stepped into the street and began dancing. She seemed unable to stop, and she kept dancing until she collapsed from exhaustion. After resting, she resumed the compulsive frenzied activity. She continued this way for days, and within a week more than 30 other people were similarly afflicted. They kept going long past the point of injury. City authorities were alarmed by the ever-increasing number of dancers. The civic and religious leaders theorized that more dancing was the solution, and so they arranged for guildhalls for the dancers to gather in, musicians to accompany the dancing, and professional dancers to help the afflicted to continue dancing. This only exacerbated the contagion, and as many as 400 people were eventually consumed by the dancing compulsion. A number of them died from their exertions. In early September the mania began to abate.
The 1518 event was the most thoroughly documented and probably the last of several such outbreaks in Europe, which took place largely between the 10th and 16th centuries. The otherwise best known of these took place in 1374; that eruption spread to several towns along the Rhine River.
Contemporary explanations for the dancing plague included demonic possession and overheated blood. Investigators in the 20th century suggested that the afflicted might have consumed bread made from rye flour contaminated with the fungal disease ergot, which is known to produce convulsions. American sociologist Robert Bartholomew posited that the dancers were adherents of heretical sects, dancing to attract divine favour. The most widely accepted theory was that of American medical historian John Waller, who laid out in several papers his reasons for believing that the dancing plague was a form of mass psychogenic disorder. Such outbreaks take place under circumstances of extreme stress and generally take form based on local fears. In the case of the dancing plague of 1518, Waller cited a series of famines and the presence of such diseases as smallpox and syphilis as the overwhelming stressors affecting residents of Strasbourg. He further maintained that there was a local belief that those who failed to propitiate St. Vitus, patron saint of epileptics and of dancers, would be cursed by being forced to dance.
– Pat Bauer
Source: Britannica
The 16th Century “Dancing Plague” – One of the Strangest Episodes in all of History
For people living in pre-modern societies, the threat of plague was no laughing matter. Communities lived in fear of being infected by the highly infectious, deadly disease, which periodically swept through Europe and decimated local communities.
However, in 16th century Strasbourg, a different type of plague gripped the city. Instead of causing fatigue, fever, and boils, the so-called ‘dancing plague’ induced a form of collective mania in which the city’s residents danced through the streets until they dropped dead of exhaustion.
In the long, hot summer of 1518, the city of Strasbourg was struck by a bout of ‘choreomania’, also known as the dancing plague. A chronicle of 1636 describes the events as follows:
“[In this year] there occurred among men a remarkable and terrible disease called Saint Vitus’ dance, in which men in their madness began to dance day and night until finally they fell down unconscious and succumbed to death.”
According to historian John Waller, the plague is said to have originated with one woman, Frau Troffea, and was thought by many of her contemporaries to have been induced by the vengeful Saint Vitus, patron saint of dancers, actors and entertainers, who was intent on punishing the people of Strasbourg for immoral behavior.
One hot morning, in the middle of July, Frau Troffea began to dance in a spontaneous, frenzied manner in the streets outside her home. She continued to dance throughout the day and well in the night, until she collapsed from sheer exhaustion. The next day, she rose again, and began to dance once more, ignoring all attempts to encourage her to rest.
According to Waller, this increasingly frenzied behavior continued for several days, and drew a significant crowd of onlookers, fascinated by the woman’s strange activities. Fearful that the dancing might turn into a contagion, the local clergy forced the woman to travel to the nearby shrine of Saint Vitus, in order to seek a cure.
Frau Troffea was successfully treated at the shrine, but it was too late to stop the spread of the mania. Local residents who had witnessed her dance soon began to imitate her, with more joining them every day.
In squares and streets throughout the city, hundreds of dancers convulsed and twisted, a mass of flailing arms and spinning bodies. Drenched in sweat under the heat of the summer sun, many collapsed as a result of dehydration and fatigue, their feet bleeding.
Local physicians were initially at a loss as to what to do for these apparently tormented souls. They initially encouraged the dance, believing that it was necessary to expunge the disease. However, when this failed to effect a cure, they decided to outlaw music and the playing of instruments.
Eventually, the local clergy intervened, and sent the sufferers to the shrine of Saint Vitus, hoping to appease the angry saint. At long last, after a month of dancing mania, the plague appeared to be diminishing, and life in Strasbourg returned to normal.
However, it left a trail of destruction in its wake. Although the death toll is unknown, some commentators believed that hundreds of people may have lost their lives during this summer of madness.
A number of theories have been put forward to explain the origin of this collective mania. Noted alchemist Paracelsus, on visiting the city some years later, believed that Frau Troffea had intentionally begun to dance in order to shame her husband, and that other women had followed suit in a grave act of female defiance.
Modern historians have speculated that the dancers were all victims of hallucinations brought on by eating a particular form of fungus found in rye crops.
However, historians such as John Waller now believe that the madness was the product of a wide variety of social and economic factors, including a failed harvest, political instability and the prevalence of disease.
This period of hardship may have created a form of psychotic contagion, not uncommon in societies experiencing a period of extreme stress, and manifested in this case in the form of incessant dancing.
— Louise Flatley
Source: The Vintage News
Dance, Dance, Dance previous rooms:
The Dance Plague of 1518 / July 18
Sila Blume 
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