There’s a story that’s been floating around about the internet, that’s a tad too convoluted to ignore, one regarding a certain woman who started a rave down in the annals of history. On July 14, 1518, a woman named Frau Troffea, from Strasbourg, France, walked out from the house, and started dancing to the sound of silence. She appeared to have no control over her body. Initially the townsfolk found her antics to be amusing, since back in the day, there was little much to keep them entertained. However, when she continued her show for three days straight, they decided to tie her up, in order to stop her limbs. Unfortunately for the townspeople, by then the dance-flu had bitten around 30 people, who suffered in the same manner, and by the end of the month the numbers had grown to a 100.
The doctors were unable to find a suspect for the malady, and the hapless authorities decided to use a spot of reverse psychology. They constructed a stage, hired the best act in town, in hopes that the people would just get it out of their system, but nothing seemed to stop the dancers, not the lack of food, nor sheer exhaustion. All of them looked as though they were hallucinating, and when they did come to their senses, they begged the onlookers to help them stop. Some of them actually danced so much that their hearts gave in, and they dropped dead to the ground. Strange but true. Even stranger is the fact that this was not the first time, or the first location that was hit by the dancing-flu. A number of scenic locales around Europe were visited every few decades by the plague. Till date, no one knows the cause, the prime accused is ergot, a mould which is related to LSD, but till it strikes again, the analysis will have to wait. That’s one rave you never want to attend.
(Image source: DailyDreamsDesign)
A really funny video of two guys re-enacting the scene: