Relevance. Ballet as a whole phenomenon cannot be considered a researched sphere of culture. Among the objective reasons for this situation are the sporadic nature of its study, the complexity of the genre itself (its ”inter-artistic” synthetic status), the lack of a developed musicological methodology for studying this genre that would take into account all the components of the phenomenon – both the multidimensional ballet material itself and the staging process .
The genre of ballet often becomes the object of research in related humanitarian disciplines: ballet, theater and cultural studies. At the same time, in the field of musicology, ballet occupies a peripheral position, often being in the shadow of another musical and theatrical genre – opera. Meanwhile, the realities of modern Ukrainian art, which consist in the powerful interest in the ballet genre of modern Ukrainian composers, along with the bright explosion of the creative ballet industry, encourage a musicological understanding of artistic processes related to ballet.
An important step on this path is the implementation of the necessary set of measures: a comprehensive study of the phenomenon taking into account all its genre components (in coordination with other humanities), development of genre typology, study of genre-intonational and sociocultural parameters of modern Ukrainian ballet. After all, the ballet genre is one of the priorities in reflecting various trends in the development of modern art.
The scientific novelty of the dissertation research is a contribution to the field of modern musicology and the study of the ballet genre in general. Among the main factors of the scientific novelty of the work the first contemporary musicological understanding of the genre of modern Ukrainian ballet in a theoretical aspect; creation of the author's typology of the ballet genre, which takes the first step in the direction of musicological systematization and classification of the genre; the first in Ukrainian musicology research the works of Ukrainian ballet composers in the generational aspect; mostly the first analytical research of ballets by Ukrainian artists through the prism of socio-cultural trends; practical implementation of research results in the educational process, in particular in the program of the discipline “Innovative technologies in musical activity” in the Glier Kyiv Municipal Academy of Music, which was implemented to the educational process in 2023-2024.
Research results. The conducted dissertation research of the Ukrainian ballet of the Independence Era made it possible to outline the cultural, social and political events that influenced the creation of ballet performances. The main socio-cultural and artistic trends of modern Ukrainian ballet are systematized. The most important among them are: simultaneous functioning of three general types of ballet (folkloric, classical-romantic and modern); progressive work of choreographers with modern choreographic vocabulary; activities of a new generation of dancers and choreographers-ballet masters; lack of dependence on official theater structures; increasing the popularity of ballet among the audience; close collaboration of ballet masters and Ukrainian composers; the priority position of ballet in the modern genre system; expanding the intertextual and intermedial field of ballet; the predominance of plasticity over danceability in both the choreographic and musical spheres; involvement of non-traditional constructions in the field of scenography; reinterpretation of classical heritage; adaptation of masterpieces of classical literature.
The study reveals the versatility of modern Ukrainian ballet, taking into account not only choreographic aspects, but also the interaction of artistic directions, the influence of social and cultural trends on creativity and the importance of innovation in ballet art.
A review of various works of art history devoted to the ballet genre, in the aspect of identifying and analytically understanding the existing definitions of ballet, led to the creation of its own definition, from a musicological position, of the categories “ballet”, “modern Ukrainian ballet”, “dance spectacle”.
