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The Strasbourg Dancing Plague of 1518

The French History Podcast

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A Medieval Dance Party!

During the late medieval and early Renaissance periods, chroniclers across Europe recorded peasants dancing uncontrollably for days. The largest and most famous of all these was the dancing plague of 1518 in Strasbourg. This bout of unrestrained boogying almost certainly did happen, although debate remains over just how widespread and deadly it was. No contemporary source records any deaths, though later ones insist there were.

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