ANALISIS DE RIESGOS 9

Every performance is a unique event, within its own cultural and temporal framework and some performances have something exceptional, a perfect synchrony is made between the music and the movements, and this can create a type of magic for the performers and members of the audience. This optimal movement experience has been termed as a state of heightened consciousness, or flow by Csikszentmihalyi. Csikszentmihalyi (1990:99-100) specifically discusses the attainment of flow through dancing when ‘the response of the body to music’ leads the dancers to ‘feel relaxed comfortable and energetic’ and so gives a ‘sense of effortless movement’. However he continues by commenting that,

‘[a]lthough the flow experience appears to be effortless, it is far from being so. [...] It does not happen without the application of skilled performance [...] the muscles and brain must be equally involved [...] people become so involved in what they are doing that the activity becomes spontaneous, almost automatic’ (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990:53-4,33).

Turino (2008:19,158) observes that a firm basis for achieving synchrony is established when music or dance styling is transmitted through informal methods, similar as those discussed in Chapter 5. He comments that during performances when synchrony and flow are achieved ‘moving together [...] in a group creates a direct sense of being together’ and a ‘particular feeling of being deeply bound’ to the others in

the group (Turino, 2008:43,18) that can be equated to Turner’s (1969:177) communitas. Turino (2008:41-2) also considers that the ability to ‘sync’ during music and dance performance is a form of Hall’s (1976) ‘social synchrony’ discussed in Chapter 3.

The qualities of synchrony and flow in dance performance include a sensation of effortlessness, or the ability to move and control one’s body beyond ordinary motor activities (see Royce, 2004:33, and Wulff, 1998:107). These qualities can be experienced among members of a close knit group, such as Timişul or Doina Timişului dancers, during certain performances when the surrounding conditions allow this. When considering the factors that might contribute to the achievement of flow and synchrony in performances by Banat ensembles, and that make one group’s performance stand out among others at the same event, I would suggest that these include smooth, flowing entrances and exits from the stage, the creation of presence by the dancers, dancing with performance graciousness, strict adherence to the musical beat and synchrony of svikt (springiness) (Bakka, 1991:224). In addition to these, the social relations among the group members, that put aside any disharmony as they come onto the stage and the unspoken communication between the dancers whilst on stage leads to the creation of communitas between the dancers for the liminal time of the performance. Csikszentmihalyi (1990:110) holds that the attainment of flow is more likely in situations where the music is live rather than when the music is pre-recorded, as during live performance attention is focussed on the music. This brings into question whether such a synchrony can be achieved when the dancing is accompanied by recorded music? In Chapter 5 I discussed the merits of rehearsing to live music. I believe that the achievement of flow and synchrony in music and dance performances is only possible on occasions when a harmonious match of synchrony takes place between the musicians and dancers, or what could be termed as the musician to dancer connection ‘created by the dancers/musicians during the actual dancing’ (Nilsson, 2007:8).

Synchrony and flow refer to the harmonising of the dancers into the group and moving ‘as one’ during a performance whether on stage or dancing during a social occasion. A (not uncommon) critique regarding Romanian choreographed dance suites is that these are too ‘synchronised’ and that the performance aesthetic of the integration of the dancers into a harmonious group (Giurchescu, 1983:29) seldom gives rise to opportunities for individuals to take solo roles or to demonstrate individual virtuosity or to improvise. However, I would see that virtuosity can apply either to the ideas of the individual standing out from the rest of the group or alternatively that group virtuosity can be seen when synchrony and flow is achieved during dancing. Royce

equates virtuosity with complete mastery of the style, when the performers (dancers) move with ease and the performance appears effortless (Royce, 2004:6,33). This quality of effortlessness can be equated to flow. Looking back to my first meeting with Timişul in 2005, the younger (now main) generation had only just reached the stage of being able to undertake a full performance of the Banat choreographies although they had not learnt the dance suites from other regions of Romania. They knew the steps, but they lacked a certain graciousness or ‘charisma’ compared to the 1990s generation. They had not yet attained the stage of ‘flow’ and perfect synchrony in their dancing. Swiftly moving on five years to 2010 this magic had been acquired, so it appears that the acquisition of this graciousness or presence can be connected to age, and depth of dance experience.

The lack of solo roles in Romanian dance also leads on to a discussion on the meaning of the term improvisation (or appropriateness) in the context of local dance performances in Banat. Improvisation has a broad meaning in folk (or local) dance. In the widest sense it can be taken as the ways that a dancers expresses himself to show his ‘individualisation’ within the community’s cultural tradition (Giurchescu, 1983:21,26- 7). Improvisation is most often taken to refer to dancing without a fixed sequence of motifs (see Martin (1980) for discussion regarding improvisation in Hungarian dance), although often sequences in presentational performances that the audience may consider as improvised (or free form) are formed of a sequence of well practiced figures put together so ‘an illusion of improvisation is presented to the spectators’ (Nahachewsky, 2012:193). Schechner comments that even performances that are ‘apparently free interactions are guided by conventions and accepted procedures – including the repetition of many packaged bits and routines’ (Schechner, 2002:250). Improvisation, as dancing without a fixed sequence of motifs, does not form part of either dance in the social context or in cultural performances in Banat, but in the course of my research I came to understand that the Timişoara choreographers attached a different meaning to the term ‘improvisation’. In their eyes they see improvisation as the inclusion in the choreography of moves ‘invented’ by the choreographer or steps, motifs or shouts that do not come from the same ethnographic zone as the dances in the choreography (see Mellish, 2012a:150) which returns to Toma’s view expressed above that Banat choreographies should only include elements (dances, music, customs and shouts) from one ethnographic zone.