30th Anniversary of the Musical Theatre Research Group (Musical and Performing Arts) at the Institute of Art Studies
Nine books were presented. Two of them are by Prof. Anelia Yaneva, DSc – Architectonic Principles of Choreographic Directing in Ballet Art and Models of Choreographic Directing in Ballet Art (19th – 21st century). The first, published in 2020, clarifies basic terms in dance art, the specifics of choreographic composition, choreographic dramaturgy, choreographic directing and their connections with music, dramatic theatre, and cinema, while the second (2025) focuses on the subsequently built own codes for impact in ballet and dance theatre, bringing out basic models of choreographic directing during the 19th – 21st century.
In her monograph Screen Music Up Close (2024), Prof. Claire Levy, DSc, focuses on key issues with regard to music in the multi-component synthesis of the cinematic narrative and some later related phenomena in the field of modern audiovisual culture, describing not only certain functional aspects of cinema music, but also those specifics that distinguish the nature of film diegesis.
Asst. Prof. Emilia Zhunich, PhD, also presented two books – The Best Fool. 100 Years Since the Birth of Minyo Minev (2019) and Festivals for Music and Performing Arts. Concepts. Metamorphoses. Realisations (2020). The first is dedicated to the creative path of the famous singer and actor Minyo Minev. The second analyses the festival practices for musical and stage arts around the world, in comparison with those of the native land, with a focus on the unique Festival of Opera and Ballet Art (FOBA) in Stara Zagora and its 50-year history.
Two books were also presented by Prof. Yaneva's doctoral student, Iliana Petrova-Salazar, who had already defended her thesis: Dance, Health, Therapy. Book I. World (2023) and Dance, Health, Therapy. Book II. Europe (2025). Salazar's research explores the birth of dance from ancient knowledge and rituals and its revival as a form of therapy in Europe, where the gracious connections between dance and the universe heal diseases and care for health in the 20th and 21st centuries. The personalities, principles, and methods that science uses for health and therapy, refracted through the prism of choreographic practices, are distinguished.
Two other former doctoral students of the Musical Theatre Research Group were also present, each with a monograph. The monograph by Stavri Angelov – Musical and Stage Creativity for Children in Bulgaria in the Second Half of the 20th and the Beginning of the 21st Century. Literary Heroes and Stage Realisations (2020) – analyses operas, operettas, musicals, and ballets based on fairy tales, Bulgarian fairy tales, and those inspired by literary works, including operettas for children and played by children, tracing the source and the subsequent changes in stage realisations.
Rosen Metodiev's book The Ballet in Burgas (2022) is the first detailed study of ballet art in Burgas – from the end of the 19th century, when the first events began in evening parties, through the dance performances at the Amateur Opera, to its nationalisation and the construction of a valuable ballet repertoire, with ballet works unique to Bulgaria.
The latest monographs of the Musical Theatre Research Group continue the research related to the previous editions of the group. And these are, first of all, the four collective volumes Bulgarian Musical Theatre (2000–2015), along with other author's monographs by the scientists of the group such as At the Opera in Old Sofia, The Twelve Past, The Opera Theatre of Dimitar Dimitrov, The Festival and its Golden Time, etc. by Prof. Rosalia Bix, DSc; Processes in Bulgarian Ballet, Folklore Whispers in Ballet Realisations, Choreographic Approaches and Genre Transformations, Choreographic Composition, etc. by Prof. Anelia Yaneva, DSc; Bulgarian Operetta Theatre and The Idea of Musical Theatre by Prof. Rumyana Karakostova, PhD; The Beijing Opera Jing Ju by Assoc. Prof. Miglena Tzenova, PhD.
As the Director of the Institute, Prof. Joanna Spassova-Dikova, PhD, noted, “The Musical Theatre Research Group (today Musical and Performing Arts) is always looking for the new, the undiscovered, and this is what distinguishes it, as well as its remarkable productivity. It continues to surprise us with new readings, analysed with inspiration and piety to the object of research – opera, ballet, operetta, musical, along with new genre forms and formations.”
The celebration was attended by scholars from the Music Sector, Theatre Sector, Cinema Sector, as well as representatives of the National Academy of Music, the Academy of Music, Dance, and Fine Arts, the Sofia Opera, the opera in Iași, Romania, Arabesque Ballet, and others.
