Dancing mania
Often musicians accompanied dancers, due to a belief that music would treat the mania, but this tactic sometimes backfired by encouraging more to join in.
[1] The several theories proposed range from religious cults being behind the processions to people dancing to relieve themselves of stress and put the poverty of the period out of their minds.
[5] A disease of the nervous system, chorea is characterized by symptoms resembling those of dancing mania,[2]: 134 which has also rather unconvincingly been considered a form of epilepsy.
[9] One of the earliest-known incidents occurred sometime in the 1020s in Bernburg, where 18 peasants began singing and dancing around a church, disturbing a Christmas Eve service.
[6]: 33 On 24 June 1374, one of the biggest outbreaks began in Aachen,[4]: 126 before spreading to other places such as Cologne, Flanders, Franconia, Hainaut, Metz, Strasbourg, Tongeren, Utrecht,[6]: 33 and regions and countries such as Italy and Luxembourg.
[6]: 39 According to John Waller, although numerous incidents were recorded, the best documented cases are the outbreaks of 1374 and 1518, for which there is abundant contemporary evidence.
Generally occurring in times of hardship,[2]: 136 up to tens of thousands of people would appear to dance for hours,[2]: 133 [10] days, weeks, and even months.
[2]: 136 In his research into social phenomena, author Robert Bartholomew notes that contemporary sources record that participants often did not reside where the dancing took place.
[2]: 133 Throughout, those affected by dancing mania suffered from a variety of ailments, including chest pains, convulsions, hallucinations, hyperventilation,[2]: 136 epileptic fits,[4]: 126 and visions.
[2]: 135 Some participated in further activities, such as tying themselves up with vines and whipping each other, pretending to sword fight, drinking large amounts of wine, and jumping into the sea.
[2]: 134 A study of the phenomenon in 1959 by religious history professor Ernesto de Martino revealed that most cases of tarantism were probably unrelated to spider bites.
[2]: 134 As the real cause of dancing mania was unknown, many of the treatments for it were simply hopeful guesses, although in some instances they were effective.
[12]: 70 People believed that the dancing was a curse brought about by St. Vitus;[10] they responded by praying[4]: 126 and making pilgrimages to places dedicated to St.
[2]: 139 Midelfort describes how the music encouraged others to join in, however, and thus effectively made things worse, as did the dancing places that were sometimes set up.
[6]: 35 Numerous hypotheses have been proposed for the causes of dancing mania, and it remains unclear whether it was a real illness or a social phenomenon.
Some historians link ergot poisoning to phenomena like the dancing plagues during the late medieval and Renaissance periods, and even the Salem Witch hysteria, as suggested by Oliver Sacks.
[4]: 126 Numerous sources discuss how dancing mania, and tarantism, may have simply been the result of stress and tension caused by natural disasters around the time,[6]: 43 such as plagues and floods.
[12]: 72 The recurring waves of the Black Death, other natural disasters, would have combined with the dawn of Reformation to make for a great deal of uncertainty and challenge for the people of Europe during this time period.
[6]: 43 Sources agree that dancing mania was one of the earliest-recorded forms of mass hysteria,[2]: 135 [12]: 73 and describe it as a "psychic epidemic", with numerous explanations that might account for the behaviour of the dancers.
[6]: 43 It has been suggested that the outbreaks may have been due to cultural contagion triggered, in times of particular hardship, by deeply rooted popular beliefs in the region regarding angry spirits capable of inflicting a "dancing curse" to punish their victims.
