The Cultural Heritage of Ballet: Between Tradition and Digital Technologies

Asserting the opportunity to adopt computational approaches for the analysis of ballet heritage does not necessarily mean surpassing established methodological traditions but rather integrating them consciously to address the challenges posed by the discipline. Through the case study offered by the digital ecosystem DanXe, this text aims to explore the characteristics of ballet heritage, the difficulties related to its analysis and transmission, and the role of computational methodologies in organizing and processing sources. The objective of this reflection is to demonstrate that the adoption of digital tools is not merely an operation aimed at optimizing research processes and improving dissemination efforts but could be an opportunity to refine analysis and disclose new disciplinary perspectives. The reflections and results presented stem from a doctoral research project developed at the University of Bologna within the PON-Innovation program. The project explored the integration of traditional methodologies and digital tools for studying, documenting, and enhancing dance heritage, with a focus on the potential of immersive technologies and artificial intelligence.