In the summer of 1518, a woman stepped into a Strasbourg street and started dancing. This is the story of the dancing plague, the strangest outbreak in medieval history.

She did not stop. Not that day, not the next. Within weeks the streets were full of people dancing day and night, their feet bleeding and their bodies giving out, and no one could say why. The woman history calls Frau Troffea became the face of a mystery no one has solved.

The city's physicians blamed overheated blood. The council built stages and hired musicians, prescribing more dancing as the cure. The priests called it the curse of Saint Vitus, the saint whose name gave St. Vitus's Dance to history. Later centuries blamed poisoned bread, mass hysteria, and religious frenzy.

But the city records tell a stranger story than any of the theories. And the woman who started it all may never have existed.

Join host Amanda Joy on Down the Crooked Path for the full story of the 1518 dancing plague.Connect with the show: Instagram and TikTok @downthecrookedpath. New episodes every Thursday.

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