Epidemics

The Middle Ages

Forms of mass insanity occurred in response to triggering events such as war, plague, religious persecution, and fear of the end of the world.

Dance continued to be a source of problem solving. Victims danced to the point of exhaustion to be cured of these epidemics.

There is still controversy whether dance epidemics were due to real sickness or social phenomenon.

Examples:

• Pied Piper: Hired to lure rats away with magical music. When the town wouldn't pay for his service, he used his music to lure away their children instead. They were put under a magic spell and danced as they traveled away from their families.

• Tarantism: Tarantula bites that could only be cured by dancing until exhaustion to remove the poison from the blood. In panic, others who had never been bitten joined the dance mania. It was accompanied with curing music and they called it the Tarantella.

• St. Vitus's Dance: Victims moved uncontrollably with twitching and jerking gestures in the face, hands, and feet. They believed the catholic St Vitus had cursed them so they traveled to his chapel to be cured.If they wouldn't go to be cured, they were excommunicated.