Keywords: Community, Identity, Participatory dance

This paper investigates connections between local conceptions of place and identity and participation in community music and dance events in the city of Timișoara, located in the Banat region of Romania. Every year the Timișoara cultural events calendar includes an increasing number of community events that include presentational performances of local music and dance. In addition to organised performances, local music and dance is included in many private social events and life cycle celebrations in the city. Drawing on fieldwork undertaken over the period 2005 to 2013 at organised cultural and social events in the city the author
proposes that, in the city of Timișoara, locals maintain their connections to their locality through participation in these events and that this operates both at the regional level and on the micro level of specific ethnographic zones of provenance within the Banat region. Over this period, and in particular following Romania’s 2007 entry into the European Union, the ascription to this regional identity has strengthened in the lives of the locals. This can be viewed as a potential micro level reaction against forces of globalisation and Europeanization that have increasingly affected their daily lives.