lol they just needed an excuse to party hard. imagine if it was contagious like yawning - you'd just start dancing whenever someone near you did. better than the plague anyway, amirite?

Grew up in Strasbourg and they still talk about Frau Troffea in some of the old folk tales! Not sure if it was a curse or what, but it sure makes for a killer ghost tour story.

The Dancing Plague is one of those history stories that gets more fascinating the more you dig into it. The fact that there were clergy and physicians trying to handle the situation by encouraging more dancing, in retrospect, probably wasn't the best move. Some eyewitness accounts even describe heart attacks, strokes, and exhaustion. It's a mix of tragic and bizarre.

Imagine just vibing in Strasbourg and your neighbor starts breaking into dance and keeps going...and going...and going. Seriously though historians have a few theories on this. Stress-induced psychosis has happened elsewhere, like the Tanganyika laughter epidemic of '62. Life was tough in the 1500s, so folks might've just hit a breaking point.

Major rave vibes minus the good beats. If I die, let it be from dancing too hard to my favorite tune, not ergot bread! XD

Ergot poisoning seems too convenient an explanation tbh. You'd expect more symptoms than just dancing, right? Like full-on hallucinations or physical ailments. It could've been a ritual that got out of hand, or maybe history getting a bit mixed up. Gotta question everything, folks.

Not buying the curse theory. People didn't understand diseases back then, so they blamed it on curses or divine punishment. Stress-induced mass hysteria sounds plausible, but ergot poisoning does too with the whole convulsions thing. Would love to see a modern diagnosis on this one.

Totally wild to think about the dancing plague, right? Imagine if something like that happened today, it'd be all over TikTok in seconds. The ergot theory is pretty freaky - hallucinogen-laced bread causing a massive dance-off? Sci-fi novelists, take note!