1 00:00:00,280 --> 00:00:02,000 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class. It's a production of I 2 00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:07,000 Speaker 1: Heart Radio. What's Up? Everyone? Welcome to This Day in 3 00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:10,160 Speaker 1: History Class, where we bring you a new tidbit from 4 00:00:10,200 --> 00:00:26,280 Speaker 1: history every day. Today is June. The day was four. 5 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:32,440 Speaker 1: In aakin, Germany, people began writhing, screaming, and dancing uncontrollably. 6 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:35,559 Speaker 1: It was the beginning of a major outbreak of a 7 00:00:35,560 --> 00:00:40,120 Speaker 1: phenomenon called dancing mania. Some of the earliest accounts of 8 00:00:40,200 --> 00:00:43,199 Speaker 1: dancing Mania and Europe date back to the seventh century. 9 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:47,080 Speaker 1: The affliction would move like an epidemic, causing people to 10 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:50,600 Speaker 1: shout and dance wildly until they reached a point of exhaustion. 11 00:00:51,800 --> 00:00:55,120 Speaker 1: The Barefoot friar Johann Paulos once told a story about 12 00:00:55,160 --> 00:00:58,320 Speaker 1: an outbreak in a village in Saxony in the twelfth century, 13 00:00:59,400 --> 00:01:02,600 Speaker 1: but the third seventy four appearance of the phenomenon that 14 00:01:02,640 --> 00:01:05,880 Speaker 1: began in Germany was the first major outbreak of the 15 00:01:05,959 --> 00:01:11,120 Speaker 1: dancing plague. The phenomenon was also known as Koreomania, St. 16 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:15,360 Speaker 1: John's Dance, St. Guy's Dance, and St. Vitus's Dance, among 17 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:19,440 Speaker 1: other names. The outbreak of thirteen seventy four was first 18 00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:23,880 Speaker 1: described in Ochen, starting on June thirteen seventy four, but 19 00:01:23,959 --> 00:01:27,400 Speaker 1: from there it spread across Europe, particularly to other parts 20 00:01:27,400 --> 00:01:31,880 Speaker 1: of Germany, the Netherlands, and Belgium. In his eighteen thirty 21 00:01:31,920 --> 00:01:36,840 Speaker 1: two monograph, German physician Eustace Friedrich Hecker wrote of the ailment, 22 00:01:36,959 --> 00:01:41,200 Speaker 1: which he called quote a strange delusion. He said the 23 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:45,000 Speaker 1: following it was a convulsion which, in the most extraordinary 24 00:01:45,040 --> 00:01:49,560 Speaker 1: manner infuriated the human frame and excited the astonishment of 25 00:01:49,600 --> 00:01:53,080 Speaker 1: contemporaries for more than two centuries, since which time it 26 00:01:53,120 --> 00:01:56,640 Speaker 1: has never reappeared. It was called the dance of St. 27 00:01:56,680 --> 00:01:59,600 Speaker 1: John or of St. Bidas, on account of the bachantic 28 00:01:59,720 --> 00:02:02,680 Speaker 1: leaps by which it was characterized, and which gave to 29 00:02:02,720 --> 00:02:06,600 Speaker 1: those affected whilpst performing their wild dance and screaming and 30 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:11,360 Speaker 1: foaming with fury all the appearance of persons possessed. He 31 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:16,400 Speaker 1: described people dancing encircles, holding hands, shrieking out spirits names, 32 00:02:16,440 --> 00:02:20,280 Speaker 1: gasping for breath, and falling to the ground. They hit 33 00:02:20,320 --> 00:02:23,720 Speaker 1: their heads against walls, walked into rivers, and danged for 34 00:02:23,840 --> 00:02:28,880 Speaker 1: hours and quote wild delirium. Some people reportedly danced themselves 35 00:02:28,919 --> 00:02:33,040 Speaker 1: to death. By the sixteenth century, dancing mania was thought 36 00:02:33,040 --> 00:02:35,160 Speaker 1: of as an affliction sent by a saint or a 37 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:39,160 Speaker 1: punishment from God. Some people called on St. Vitus, hence 38 00:02:39,200 --> 00:02:42,120 Speaker 1: the name St. Vitus's dance. Some people thought it was 39 00:02:42,160 --> 00:02:45,520 Speaker 1: possession and that the affected were attempting to cure themselves 40 00:02:45,520 --> 00:02:50,800 Speaker 1: through dancing. Still others, like philosopher, physician, and mystic Paracelsus, 41 00:02:51,200 --> 00:02:56,000 Speaker 1: believed that the phenomenon was psychogenic. Paracelsus broke dancing mania 42 00:02:56,040 --> 00:03:00,520 Speaker 1: down into three categories, Correa imaginativa, Correa is eiva, and 43 00:03:00,639 --> 00:03:05,720 Speaker 1: corea Naturalists Korea imaginedativa meant it came from the imagination, 44 00:03:06,280 --> 00:03:10,040 Speaker 1: Korea lashiva meant it came from sexual desires, and Korea 45 00:03:10,120 --> 00:03:15,120 Speaker 1: naturalists meant it was an organic medical disorder. Magistrates and 46 00:03:15,200 --> 00:03:19,760 Speaker 1: priests treated dancing mania through interventions like prayer, exorcisms, and 47 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:24,440 Speaker 1: hiring dancing partners, though Paracelsus recognized the futility of such 48 00:03:24,560 --> 00:03:29,000 Speaker 1: treatments and said care should be up to physicians. People 49 00:03:29,000 --> 00:03:33,440 Speaker 1: have also attributed the phenomenon to social turbulence. The Black Death, 50 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:36,800 Speaker 1: a pandemic that killed millions of people in Europe and Asia, 51 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 1: caused widespread devastation, despair, and fear. Some authors suggested that 52 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:46,720 Speaker 1: dancing mania was a kind of stress induced psychosis that 53 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:52,200 Speaker 1: developed in response to plague, starvation, and other horrors and conflicts. 54 00:03:52,640 --> 00:03:55,800 Speaker 1: Others said that the phenomenon stemmed from food poisoning from 55 00:03:55,880 --> 00:03:59,760 Speaker 1: rye affected by ergict was a showing of religious ecstasy, 56 00:04:00,280 --> 00:04:03,920 Speaker 1: or was just elaborate trickery on the part of impoverished 57 00:04:03,920 --> 00:04:07,640 Speaker 1: people trying to get over on others. Dancing mania is 58 00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:11,920 Speaker 1: now considered a mass psychogenic illness, as symptoms spread quickly 59 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:17,360 Speaker 1: but have no identifiable cause. In Strasbourg, France, in fifteen eighteen, 60 00:04:17,680 --> 00:04:21,000 Speaker 1: there was another outbreak of dancing mania. The town banned 61 00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:24,240 Speaker 1: public gatherings and designated areas for people to dance in 62 00:04:24,880 --> 00:04:27,599 Speaker 1: and a variant of the phenomenon also popped up in 63 00:04:27,640 --> 00:04:31,080 Speaker 1: Italy in the fifteenth century and lasted until the seventeenth. 64 00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:34,560 Speaker 1: It was called tarrantis um as it was linked to 65 00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:37,760 Speaker 1: the bight of the tarantula. At the time. People with 66 00:04:37,839 --> 00:04:41,200 Speaker 1: tarantism would dance to music until they fail, attempting to 67 00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:45,200 Speaker 1: cure their illness. Hysteria was often pegged as the cause 68 00:04:45,200 --> 00:04:49,080 Speaker 1: of tarantism, and women who were affected. What was once 69 00:04:49,080 --> 00:04:52,240 Speaker 1: called St. Vitus's dance is now known as Sydenham's career 70 00:04:52,520 --> 00:04:56,839 Speaker 1: a neurological disorder characterized by involuntary movement of body parts 71 00:04:56,839 --> 00:05:00,719 Speaker 1: and facial muscles, but the exact cause of dancing mania 72 00:05:01,160 --> 00:05:05,360 Speaker 1: is still a mystery. I'm Eves Jeff Coo and hopefully 73 00:05:05,440 --> 00:05:07,760 Speaker 1: you know a little more about history today than you 74 00:05:07,760 --> 00:05:12,880 Speaker 1: did yesterday. You can follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and 75 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:19,799 Speaker 1: Facebook at t d I HC podcast. If you haven't 76 00:05:19,839 --> 00:05:22,480 Speaker 1: listened to a new show I host called Unpopular, you 77 00:05:22,520 --> 00:05:24,320 Speaker 1: can get it anywhere you listen to This Day and 78 00:05:24,400 --> 00:05:39,640 Speaker 1: History Class. Thanks again and we'll see you tomorrow. For 79 00:05:39,680 --> 00:05:42,400 Speaker 1: more podcasts from I Heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, 80 00:05:42,480 --> 00:05:45,040 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.