Romanian folk dance is a huge universal breathing, reflecting like a mirror "the passing, the metamorphosis," that "macrocosmic something always different." Hora, brâul, sârba, the pair dance highlight the joy of being, like an ostinato (by keeping the melodic line but always stressed by different motives) of living in the present as well as a permanent mysterious becoming; the common point is the Apollonian review of actions. C. Sachs pointed out the role played by learning through word of mouth in the process of preservation and circulation of a certain part of folklore: it connected mysteriously different ages, making possible the merging of the past and the present. The aged teach the young and everyone experiences the common state of happiness in his own way. The exuberance, the incandescence of being part of it, the individual optimism melt in the collective one, and all these blend in the substance of the joyful dances. They mirror the "the play of Universe," that playful part of human existence, by their original, particular and symbolic embracing gestures. Together with their texts which are chanted in form of humorous/satirical extempore verse stressed by an amazingly different rhythm, accompanied by intricate melodic structures, the Romanian "hora," the "brâul" create a special power circuit between the dancers and the viewers, who become partners, each in his own way, at the common moment of solar plenitude. The Romanian folk dance stands for a real "credo" in human existence, like in Vida Geza's sculptures, suggesting that life is divinely meant for happiness.Eminescu, quoted by Ovidiu Bârlea, noticed "there is something divine in every national feast... it seems to me a feast of the heart, a devout pray."The folklore "updates" staged by authors such as Mitiţă Dumitrescu and Floria Capsali, Gabriel Negri, Vera Proca-Ciortea and Miriam Răducanu, are restitution acts in the metaphysics of happiness, each following a different stylistic route.
by Raluca Ianegic
