Description

Extensively researched and historically faithful, The Dance That Never Ends is set during the real events of one of the most mysterious and haunting episodes in human history, The Dancing Plague of 1518 in Strasbourg.

Summary
In the unusually hot summer of 1518, people begin to dance uncontrollably in the streets of Strasbourg. They dance without joy, purpose, or pause. What starts off as isolated incidents, rumours and murmurs quickly spreads to hundreds of dancers across the city, prompting the city council to seek answers.

Thomas Albrecht is a pragmatic local physician of growing repute who is secretly courting the weaver's daughter, Gretchen Vogt. He first confronts the strange affliction when Gretchen begins to dance herself. As the affliction spreads and Gretchen's condition worsens, Thomas pursues patterns in contaminated grain, old medical texts, and mysterious accounts of an invisible fiddler seen only by those afflicted. Despite his efforts, no reliable explanation or cure emerges. Initially, the city decrees that dancers should be encouraged to dance themselves to exhaustion, based on prevailing Galenic medical advice. But as these measures fail, the church, the clergy and old legends assume an increasingly prominent role in the discourse.

As Gretchen's condition deteriorates, Thomas begins to question not just the illness, but his own self-worth. What good is his medical training if he cannot help those closest to him? Around him, Strasbourg turns inward, caught in a conflict between humours and prayers, tinctures and pilgrimages. In a spiralling city where faith is gaining ground over reason, Thomas must navigate the collapsing boundaries between doctor and penitent, evidence and faith, as he faces the quiet possibility that he may never truly understand The Dancing Plague.