Psyched Podcast

Mini: Death by Dancing: The mass hysteria known as dance mania


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We explore the history of various episodes of dance mania, along with characteristic behaviors and possible causes of the bizarre hysteria.
References
About the Tarantella [Video file]. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://houstonpbs.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/3459b331-c720-41c9-afe4-00e6d6a5034c/about-the-tarantella/
Bartholomew, R. E. (2001). Little green men, meowing nuns and head-hunting panics: a
study of mass psychogenic illness and social delusion. Jefferson: McFarland & Company.
Calabrese, A. (2015, October 26). The tarantual-possesed women who could only be cured by dance. Atlas Obscura. Retrieved from https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/the-tarantula-possessed-women-who-could-only-be-cured-by-dance
Tarantella: listen to the dance of the spider's bite [Blog post]. (2014, November 4). Retrieved from http://blog.wellcomelibrary.org/2014/04/tarantella-listen-to-the-dance-of-the-spiders-bite/
Waller, J. (2009). A forgotten plague: making sense of dancing mania. The Lancet, 373, 624-625. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60386-X
Waller, J. (2018, July 5). Keep on moving: the bizarre dance epidemic of summer 1518. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2018/jul/05/bizarre-dance-epidemic-of-summer-1518-strasbourg
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Psyched PodcastBy Alexa Shank and Kelsey Fyffe