In the summer of 1518, hundreds of citizens in the city of Strasbourg were suddenly overcome by a strange plague that made them dance uncontrollably. They danced, unwillingly, for hours on end; for ...

When people think of Medieval diseases, hysterical dancing is not usually what first comes to mind. Yet in 14th and 15th century Germany, dozens of ordinary people claimed to be infected by the ...

The word plague and the activity of dancing aren’t usually connected, for obvious reasons — for example, agitating the painful and fragile buboes. In 1518, a still-strange epidemic struck the city of ...

This isn’t about that night you dropped too much MDMA at the club. And no, it’s not a Yeah Yeah Yeahs track either (even if “dance, dance, dance ’til you’re dead” would’ve been a fitting soundtrack).