Serbian Dancing Lady

About

The Serbian Dancing Lady refers to stories and viral videos of a Serbian woman who dances in the streets at night in traditional robes and threatens anyone she encounters with a knife. The first-known video of the dancing Serbian lady was posted to YouTube by Serbia Today in 2019 and gained viral spread, with some believing it to be a hoax and some believing it to be real. In the following years, new videos depicting the creepy character went viral, especially on TikTok.

Origin

On September 22nd, 2019, Serbia Today^[1] published an article reporting on a video of a woman dancing "similar to the movements of Serbian folklore" in the streets of Belgrade, Serbia. According to the report, which sources an anonymous witness, the woman carries a knife that she uses to threaten passers-by. Two photos taken from unknown social media accounts purportedly sharing the story and a sighting of the woman were shared in the story (shown below, left and right).

A video of the Serbian dancing lady was uploaded to the Serbia Today YouTube^[2] page that day, garnering over 143,000 views in four years (shown below).

Spread

The video and story of the Serbian dancing lady spread over the following months. On September 22nd, 2019, the day it was posted to Serbia Today, a 9GAG^[3] user posted the video, writing, "Woman in traditional robes dancing and chasing people with a knife (Serbia). And you thought killer clowns were weird," garnering over 80 upvotes in four years. On November 27th, 2022, a Redditor posted to /r/tipofmytongue^[4] looking for the video, garnering over 75 upvotes in three months. On December 2nd, YouTuber^[5] Daryon Story posted a video sharing the story, garnering over 1.6 million views in two months (shown below).

On December 29th, 2022, TikToker^[6] @al3ks4_09 posted a purportedly fake video of the Serbian lady dancing and then running at the camera operator with a knife, garnering over 8.9 million views in two months (shown below, left). On February 14th, 2023, TikToker^[7] @aatec13 posted a new video of the supposed Serbian dancing lady, garnering over 50 million views in a week (shown below).

On February 11th, 2023, TikToker^[8] @@jumpersjump posted a clip from the Jumpers Jump podcast in which the hosts discuss the Serbian dancing lady, garnering over 25 million views in 10 days (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References