The Dancing Plague of 1518 was a bizarre event that occurred in Strasbourg, then part of the Holy Roman Empire. In July of that year, many residents, primarily women, began to dance uncontrollably in the streets. This phenomenon lasted for several weeks, with dozens of people joining in, leading to exhaustion and even death due to overexertion. Authorities were baffled by the situation and initially believed that the dancers needed to continue dancing to recover. They even hired musicians to encourage the behavior. The cause of this strange occurrence remains unclear, with theories ranging from mass hysteria to ergot poisoning from contaminated grain.