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 ‘dancing plague’. What was this mysterious phenomenon? What caused it? And was it even a real disease?
Strap in as Dr. Anthony Delaney and Dr. Maddy Pelling from History Hit's After Dark podcast speak to Dr. Eleanor Janega to discover why these people just couldn’t stop dancing.
Up Next in Interviews
-
Ghosts of the Romanovs
At about 1am on 17 July 1918, in a fortified mansion in Ekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains, the Romanovs – ex-tsar Nicholas II, ex-tsarina Alexandra, their 5 children, and their 4 remaining servants – were awoken by Bolshevik captors and told they must dress and gather their belongings for a swif...
-
7 Wonders of the Ancient World
People have always looked to the wonders of the ancient world for awe and inspiration. In the Ancient era, people embarked on dangerous pilgrimages to visit storied sites like the Pyramids of Giza, or the Statue of Zeus at Olympia. While only one of them remains, they still excite us thousands of...
-
Who Owns History?
In the late 1960s, when many in the UK viewed colour television as tacky, art historian Kenneth Clarke was asked to produce a series all about Western Art. Clarke duly delivered on this assignment, creating the series ‘Civilisation’. At a time when there was a genuine belief that the world stood ...
12 Comments