A priori, dance is the main expressive means in ballet performances. However, the famous French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj does not always adhere to this rule, and sometimes his ballets are dominated by the spoken word. Declamation can be entrusted to dancers or dramatic artists, audio recordings of speeches by famous figures can be used. Preljocaj uses this technique throughout his entire oeuvre in a number of his productions, which are discussed in this article. The search for new expressive means is not only Preljocaj’s concern. The aim of the article was to evaluate the inclusion of sound texts in ballet performances. As a result of the analysis, the author comes to the conclusion that expanding the range of selected expressive means does not guarantee a successful artistic solution. The justification of these conclusions is given.

The article introduces for the first time into scientific circulation the libretto of the failed ballet by V. Langammer In the New World, stored in the Russian State Historical Archive. The ballet was supposed to be staged in 1895 and was supposed to be timed to coincide with the benefit of Maria Mariusovna Petipa on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater. The possible reasons for the ballet theater's appeal to an atypical plot for it – the gold rush in Mexico ‒ are revealed. An analysis of the mounting materials for the play at the end of the 19th century shows that they showed the features of the nascent directing. The author comes to the conclusion that the ballet should have been staged by Marius Ivanovich Petipa, and suggests that the production did not take place.

This article analyzes the conceptual prerequisites for employing artificial intelligence (AI) as a choreographic tool in contemporary dance. It highlights the potential of AI in both theatrical and performative contexts, particularly those engaging with «extended choreography». The study traces the lineage of modern AI technologies to early experiments in interdisciplinary projects of the 1960s that combined dance and computers, such as «E.A.T» («Experiments in Art and Technology») and Russian kinetic art. Utilizing historical and comparative methodologies, the article identifies key conceptual foundations—including the algorithmization and automation of the creative process, cybernetic principles, and the delegation of creativity—that foreshadowed contemporary AI applications. The limitations of AI as an autonomous generator of choreography are also addressed. Furthermore, the article presents practical examples of AI implementation in the works of choreographers from the 2010s and 2020s, encompassing media design (A. Abalikhina) and robotic choreography (H.A.U.S., Huang Yi, K. Matulevsky – S. Gaidukova). Finally, it underscores the necessity of interdisciplinary collaboration between choreographers and engineers and outlines conditions conducive to the fruitful application of AI technologies.

The article is devoted to one of the three main genres of Chinese classical dance, Dunhuang, reproduced from frescoes, sculptures and scores of Mogao caves in northwest China. The relevance of addressing the topic is due to the lack of works in the Russian-language choreographic and cultural space devoted to the analysis of Dunhuang dance. The general style and mood of Dunhuang art in general and dance in particular are considered. The characteristic property of duality is emphasized – energy and pacification, the desire to transmit these features to the outside: to viewers, listeners and future generations. Duality also applies to the “middle ground” as the basis of Dunhuang art, which embodied the meeting of the “upper and lower” worlds. The main choreographic features of the Dunhuang dance and descriptions of costumes and props are given. Attention is focused on the importance of Dunhuang art in the general field of Chinese culture.

Only three years separated the premiere of La Sylphide in Paris and St. Petersburg. But the perception of the ‘choreographic manifesto of the Romantic era’ in Russia and France was different. Paris immediately and unconditionally accepted the ballet, seeing in it a consonance with the artistic ideas of Romanticism. In St. Petersburg, La Sylphide was perceived as an anacreontic ballet, viewed through the prism of mythological and historical-heroic productions, which formed a significant part of the repertoire of the St. Petersburg ballet company. Only Maria Taglioni's arrival in Russia two years later (1837) introduced the St Petersburg La Sylphide into the pantheon of the highest romantic achievements. The article explores the differences in the artistic reception of La Sylphide in Russia and France due to a number of objective factors: the organisation of theatre management, generational change, repertoire policy, the intensity of ballet premieres, and, of course, the individuality of the performer.

The article is devoted to the influence of Russian ballet on the Freddie Mercury’s output — the British singer and front-man of Queen rock-band. The embodiment of ideas inspired by the images and plots of ballet art can be traced in many of the musician's works, created both as part of a team and as solo project. In particular, Mercury's attention was attracted by the legacy of Diaghilev's enterprise and performances with Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov. Artistic borrowings in the singer's work are present in the form of separate cultural references, expressed in elements of costumes and stage behavior and adapting the famous theatrical work’s ideas as the concept of his own video clips As an analytical material of this article are used two video clips: I Want to Break Free (the song by Queen) and Made in Heaven (Freddie Mercury's solo single), in which the singer's passion for ballet art was most vividly reflected.

Professional choreographic education in China was laid thanks to the educational activities of Russian dancers, teachers and choreographers. Chinese ballet art inherited the classical teaching methodology, as well as the curricula of the Russian ballet school, on the basis of which a system of educating their own national artists was developed. The purpose of the article is to find out in what cultural and historical conditions the Beijing Dance School (1954) adapted and improved the Russian pedagogical heritage of ballet. The most indicative for the study is the study of curricula on classical dance of Russian and Chinese schools of ballet art of the mid-20th century; analysis of the activities of innovative teachers and choreographers, whose approaches and techniques have formed successive lines of communication in the pedagogy of the ballet class of Russian and Chinese performers; conducting a comparative analysis of the pedagogical systems of the two schools.
The scientific hypothesis is based on the fact that the pedagogical and artistic systematization of the achievements of the Russian school of ballet in the middle – end of the twentieth century. formed the most important criteria for the continuity of professional ballet art and education not only in Europe, but also in East Asian countries. This is especially important to take into account in the framework of the modern cultural, anthropological and art history study of pedagogical systems in the history of world choreographic culture in general, and academic choreographic education in particular.

This article examines György Ligeti’s opera Le Grand Macabre through the lens of existential irony and macabre grotesque. The author explores the composer’s distinctive artistic thinking, manifest in the deformation of traditional genre models, intertextuality, and ironic play with cultural codes. The opera’s treatment of death is shown to reject tragic pathos, transforming the theme into a grotesque celebration of life. The article reveals the specific features of postmodern reinterpretation of apocalyptic themes, where the fear of death is overcome through carnivalesque inversion and the dismantling of eschatological expectations.

The article discusses the process of creating the libretto for A. N. Serov’s opera The Power of the Fiend. It reveals the involvement of another author in the creation process through unpublished epistolary materials from the composer. J. P. Polonsky, a poet and prose writer who edited the magazines “Transcaucasian Bulletin” and “Russian Word”, collaborated with A. F. Zhokhov to rewrite the original text by A. N. Ostrovsky and the last two acts of the opera in accordance with A. N. Serov’s ideas. The work of J. P. Polonsky on The Enemy’s Power has not been previously covered in scholarly literature. This article includes five letters from the composer to Polonsky from 1859 and 1869 that reveal the challenging creative process behind the creation of this opera.

The article focuses on the semantics of the electric guitar timbre. The study of musical material allows us to draw a conclusion about the possible ways of its application, which composers turn to. There are different types of acoustic guitars, which differ from each other: baroque, classical, dreadnought, Russian, pop, etc. This article will focus only on the electric guitar, which does not belong to acoustic musical instruments and, in accordance with the classification of musical instruments in the Hornbostel-Sachs system, is an electrophone. The electric guitar is one of the most common instruments in modern musical culture, which has had a strong influence on the development of musical art in the 20th and first quarter of the 21st centuries. Its diverse capabilities and timbre have determined not only the sound of many popular musical genres, but have also become an important means of musical expression, capable of conveying a wide range of emotions and ideas. The relevance of the study is due to the increasing role of the electric guitar in modern musical discourse and the need for a systematic analysis of its timbre characteristics from the point of view of semantic content. In the context of the constant development of musical technologies and the emergence of new methods of sound processing, there is a need to understand how the semantics of the electric guitar timbre is transformed and what new meanings it acquires in the modern musical context. The study contributes to a deeper understanding of the role of timbre in modern musical communication and expands the possibilities of creative use of the electric guitar.

The article examines the imagery system of Blok’s dramaturgy and its reinterpretation in Tsvetaeva’s first dramatic cycle, Romantics. The main characters in Blok’s first play, The Fairground Booth, are masked figures from the commedia dell’arte: Pierrot, Harlequin, and Columbine. In Blok’s imagery system, these characters lose their traditional traits and acquire fundamentally new ones. From being servant masks (zanni), as they had been for centuries, Pierrot, Harlequin, and Columbine transform into symbols of universal generalization: lyricism (Pierrot), sensuality (Harlequin), and eternal femininity (Columbine). These new masked images become established in the subsequent history of theater and dramaturgy, including in Blok’s later drama The Rose and the Cross and in Tsvetaeva’s “romantic” plays. The presence of Blok’s imagery in Tsvetaeva’s dramaturgy becomes a kind of poetic marker of the introduction of new symbols into the artistic space of the future.

This article examines the possibilities of cinematographic practice in the digital age. Analysis of the visual component in the process of obtaining information and knowledge allows us to conclude that there is a dominance of visual culture over text, which plays a key role in the formation of the cultural and educational space of modern society. Domestic films, as audiovisual art, possessing a high degree of relevance, perform not only educational, but also upbringing functions, contributing to the development of critical thinking, emotional empathy and social responsibility in young people. Cinematography is an important tool in preserving and transmitting cultural and spiritual values of Russian society between generations. Through artistic images and narrative structures, films contribute to the consolidation and reproduction of national identity, as well as the formation of stable moral guidelines. This makes the inclusion of the history of cinema in the educational program of domestic schools justified and appropriate.