The Black Death and Dancing Mania

The Black Death, or the Black Plague, was one of the most deadly pandemics in human history, widely thought to have been caused by a bacterium named Yersinia pestis. It probably began in Central Asia and spread to Europe by the late 1340s. The total number of deaths worldwide from the pandemic is estimated at 75 million people.

Dancing mania was a phenomenon that occurred primarily in mainland Europe from the 14th century through to the 17th century, in which groups of people would dance through the streets of towns or cities, sometimes foaming at the mouth or speaking in tongues, until they collapsed from exhaustion.