In this article we study the musical instruments of antiquity on the basis of comparison of mythological and literary sources. The ancient Greek wind instrument aulos is in author’s center of attention. In the first section of this article provides an overview of the various translations “Iliad” of Homer. Is traced the formation of the tradition, according to which the Greek name αὐλός erroneously translated as “flute”. The author emphasizes the important role of the aulos in process of becoming music’s independence.

The article describes the history of the development of legal regulation on producing activity in the field of theatrical performances organization. Based on the collected historical and legal material the author singles out for the first time the main historical stages of the legal regulation of producing activity in Russia and European countries. In connection with the lack of legal definitions of terms “producer” and “producing activity” in the domestic legislation author considers the legal nature of production activity and suggests definitions of terms “producer”, “producing activity”.

The article is devoted to the new technologies in art, especially to experience and perspectives of attracting modern technological solutions for the development of the art of dance. Multimedia practices that allow to consistently unite traditional drama with the latest scenographic techniques resulting in a new artistic reality are analyzed in this article. As examples, the activities of the Russian Ballet Theater’s Talarium et Lux (Ballet and Light) and the project of the Mariinsky Theater team’s Vaslav Nijinsky ‘Le Spectre du passé’ Les Ballet Russes VR are addressed.

The article is devoted to the problem of choreographic text notation. The authors argue that in the conditions of functioning of modern media, the possibilities of modeling and fixing the choreographic text change the principles of the choreographer’s work. The systems of Beauchamp-Feuillet, Laban’s, Benesh-notation, Motion Capture, “Forms of life” are analyzed. The absence of a single system of notation, equivalent to musical notation in music art, was noted. On the basis of data from foreign sources, the resource potential of media in the choreographic text notation is disclosed. The authors come to the conclusion that media tools allow you to plan choreographic decisions before the rehearsal process begins with specific, “live” performers. As a result, greater meaningfulness and purposefulness of projecting of programmed dance movements is achieved. The authors draw a conclusion regarding the appearance of a new toolkit in the work of a choreographer, which allows you to simulate movements in advance and simultaneously record them.

Spectacular ballet Excelsior (music by R. Marenko, libretto and choreography by L. Manzotti, premiere in 1881 in La Scala, Milan) is analyzed from the perspective of social history of technology. Transfer of the idea of the sublime from natural and sacral objects to technology was an important tendency of the 19^th century, and was expressed in artistic interpretation of the industrial theme. Scenes described in the ballet represented the events and objects considered to be central for technological progress and its mythologization. The paradoxical combination of ballet characters (geniuses and fairies) with complex technologies represented in stage design, can be explained through genre conventions of spectacular ballets. It also has direct analogies with technological spectacle of world expositions, as well as with advertising strategies of technological novelties. The article shows that the poetics of the ballet follows the structure of romantic ballets. Its ideological overarching goal was to show the brotherhood of nations as a social effect of technological change, and this required staging of a lot of character dances. Unlike the romantic ballet, where the repertoire of character dances was quite limited, Excelsior was an attempt to show a variety of European and non-European nations.

A study of the production of M.I. Glinka’s Ivan Susanin on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre in 1939, examining the problem of staging and interpretation of Russian musical classics and the influence of Soviet ideology on art. The author touches upon the issue of artist’s relationship to the authorities and considers Stalin’s personal interference in the creative processes of musical theatre, analysing the issues of aesthetics and artistic techniques during the Soviet era.

The article is devoted to the B.G. Ayukhanov’s one-act ballet The Leningraders, my children! The Leningraders, my pride!, put on the music of the first part of the Seventh (Leningrad) symphony by Dmitry Shostakovich in 2009. In this article, for the first time, we did a detailed comparative analysis of the structural features of the music and their choreographic incarnation in a one-act ballet by Ayukhanov. We examined musical (Shostakovich) and literary (Dzhambul) images, which served as the basis for the choreography of the ballet’s characters. The authors come to the conclusion that when interpreting images of a musical canvas, the choreographer strives to create a dance text corresponding to music in structure (choreographic score).

The article is devoted to the study of Lopukhov’s theoretical and musical views from the point of musical theory and musicology. An outstanding choreographer of the twentieth century, “patriarch of Russian ballet”, Fedor Vasilyevich Lopukhov left a vast theoretical legacy, many of whose central ideas are the most important issues of musical and choreographic interaction for the art of the twentieth century. The article highlights different aspects of the choreographer’s musical activity in his work with symphonic music. Much attention is paid to the problem of recognizing the artistic significance of the means of musical expressiveness, the plastic comprehension of musical composition and dramaturgy techniques. Music for Lopukhov appears as a source of the idea of the “symphonic-choreographic work”, in which the choreography reveals its own symbolism of the dance.

In this article, the main provisions and provisions on Russian ballet art of the first half of the 20th century are analyzed in detail, choreographers and teachers Fedor Lopukhov are presented in the books The Ways of the Choreographer and Choreographic frankness. A brief history of the creation of these works is given, representing a unique fusion of analytical art criticism and ballet-critical literature. The inextricable link between the formation and development of ballet art and the history of the life of the Russian state is underscored. It is shown how the creative worldview of F.V. Lopukhov from the beginning of the Soviet era and towards the end of the sixties of the twentieth century, during his stay in his homeland in ballet, in returning to the stage and preserving the classical heritage of outstanding masters of the past, enabling ballet art to develop harmoniously, proving once for its viability. That the books Ways of the Choreographer and Choreographic frankness are neither manuals nor literature on choreography. In both books, much attention is paid to different choreographic works, including working pupils and followers who have made this analysis so professionally and in detail that its content is now of undoubted value not only for ballet experts and choreographers, but for the entire community of lovers of the And Connoisseurs of choreographic art.

The article presents the first (from arrival in Russia in 1855 to appointment for a full-time ballet composer service in St. Petersburg in 1871) period of Ludwig Minkus’ creative work in Russia. Based on previously unpublished archive materials and materials of periodical publications of the second half of the 19^th century, the chronology of the main events of the composer’s life was reconstructed. The description of the Moscow period of the creative adaptation of the composer is given, the role and influence of Arthur Saint-Leon on the creative destiny of Minkus is revealed, the specific nature of creating ballets in the co-authorship of the choreographer and the composer is determined and the previously unknown facts are given about concert and pedagogical activity of Ludwig Minkus.

The author studies the historical significance of the year 1910: the year of the triumphant success of the second Russian Seasons in Paris, organized by Sergey Diaghilev, and the year of Marius Petipa’s death. Documentary evidence is presented about the last Petipa’s days and about his funeral in St. Petersburg, as well as, about his attitude towards the success of Russian Seasons in Paris. The differences between artistic and managing models of Petipa’s theater and Diaghilev’s entreprise are analyzed.

The article is the first research about the interaction of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich and Sergei Diaghilev in the first years of the ‘Diaghilev’ seasons and is devoted to the reconstruction of the relationship of their joint professional activity. On the basis of archival materials and periodicals, author was able to take a fresh look at such a landmark phenomenon of Russian art and culture of the early 20th century as the ‘Diaghilev’ seasons. The author examines the general historical and cultural situation against which the emergence of such a phenomenon as the ‘Diaghilev’ seasons and the factors that made possible the active participation of Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich in the fate of the ‘Diaghilev’ seasons became.

The article examines the reinterpretation of classic ballet on the contemporary stage. In the production of Coppélia at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater, Mikhail Shemyakin boldly changed the author’s original idea, choosing to base the libretto only on Hoffmann’s short story The Sandman. This changes the genre of the production from a light comedy to an overwhelming human tragedy.

The article deals with problems of emotional and aesthetic upbringing of preschool-age children in classical dance lessons, including the problem of forming dance interaction skills in a group of pupils. Pedagogical experiment is the main method of research whose results are presented in the article. The author gives a description of favorable conditions for dance interaction revealed during the ascertaining experiment. These conditions take into account age-specific features of pupils’ physical and psycho-emotional development. In addition, the author characterizes the technique of forming the skills of perception, self-control and self-analysis as a technique of pupils’ dancing interaction with the teacher and with each other.

New conditions for the development of culture in the post-revolutionary period in Russia are analyzed. The influence of the new policy on changes in the development of professional choreographic education in Russia is determined. The changes in the structure of the Petrograd Theatrical School, the new content of education and the preservation of the traditional methods of teaching are considered. He highly appreciated the civic position of the teaching staff of the Petrograd Theater School, which preserved the basic traditions of the school of Russian ballet during the difficult time of the cultural and political shift.