First appearing at NZ Festival 2020 before the world came to a halt, Strasbourg 1518 explores the true history of a different kind of epidemic: the 1518 Strasbourg dancing plague. The unsolved phenomenon saw somewhere between 50 and 400 people dance erratically in the historic European nation.

This new dance theatre work from Borderline Arts Ensemble delves into the unusual crisis which took the lives of many and has left the world scratching its head. Directed and choreographed by Lucy Marinkovich and written and composed by Lucien Johnson, Strasbourg 1518 features live music and an explosive cast of dancers. The work journeys through inequality, misogyny and delirious hypnosis of a real-life dance with death.

It plays at Circa Theatre from 23–28 March, 2021.

Image: Philip Merry.