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A Time To Dance Summary

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John Waller, in “A Time to Dance, a Time to Die The Extraordinary Story of the Dancing Plague of 1518”, a book that describe an epidemic happened during 16th century, which a weird phenomenon took place on the street, thousands people dance day and night until they fell unconscious. Waller collected evidences and records to explain the story of this dancing plague. By analyzing the cause and vary reasons of the dancing plague, Waller reproduces the terrifying sight of that year through his words. The purpose, aim and goal of this book is to take us back to the past through the written story and published chronicles. Thus, by understanding the situation, a dancing plague would no longer be a folklore but a reasonable truth that can be explained in both anthropology and psychology.
 This is a story of how a city's people lost hope. 
On July 1518, midsummer, A French woman named Frau Troffea went on a narrow street in Strasbourg, starting her frantically dancing. This weird woman danced uninterrupted for almost six days. A week later, …show more content…
Much of this book is based upon published chronicles. Some of the narrative is based on the written work and recorded by a German-Swiss physician, Paracelsus, who provided a name for the first person to perish to the dance mania. 
 Perhaps, according to published chronicles. Before the Dancing Plague of 1518, there were several similar precedents happened through different centuries. Waller begins the story a quarter of a century before Frau Troffea was seized by a compulsion to dance. By explaining the social, cultural aspect, lifestyle, environmental factors in medieval Europe, it is believable that the life was really assiduous for most people, therefore, these factors might possibly led to the outbreak of this dance

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