Snow Maiden in the 21st Century: An AI Helped Design the Sets for a Classic Ballet
Russia’s Mari El Republic has joined the growing wave of AI experiments in the cultural sphere. This New Year, the local opera and ballet theater will premiere The Snow Maiden, a production that uses generative AI technologies developed by Sber.
Neural networks give a classic an upgrade
To create the stage sets, the theater turned to Sber’s neural networks. GigaChat was used to generate detailed image prompts, while Kandinsky transformed sketches by production designer Boris Golodnitsky into fully realized scenography, carefully preserving the visual language of the original drawings.
“We are pleased to present the premiere of The Snow Maiden, where our neural networks work in harmony with classical art, acting as co-creators and assistants for the production team,” said Alexander Anashchenko, chairman of Sber’s Volga-Vyatka Bank. “The use of AI allowed us to build a unique digital environment while preserving the artistic individuality of the production designer. As a result, the ballet gained a new visual expression without departing from the traditions of great Russian art.”
When classical art meets modern technology
The production is a vivid example of how traditional art forms can merge with cutting-edge technology. Sber’s AI tools are combined with the work of choreographers to bring together classical ballet and folk dance. Performers from the theater’s academic ballet company share the stage with dancers from the State Dance Ensemble of Mari El, creating a dialogue between different movement traditions.
Music plays a similar role in bridging
eras. The ballet features compositions by Pyotr Tchaikovsky alongside works by
Mari composer Gennady Arkhipov, forming a musical alliance that mirrors the
project’s broader blend of heritage and innovation.
The creative team includes some of the region’s most prominent cultural figures. The production involved Alexander and Elizaveta Selivanov, leaders of the State Dance Ensemble of Mari El; choreographer Konstantin Ivanov, a People’s Artist of Russia and founder of the Mari professional ballet school; and acclaimed costume designer Tatyana Izycheva.
Taking Russian culture to a global audience
The AI-assisted premiere of The Snow Maiden is significant not only for Mari El’s cultural scene. It signals a new phase in how artificial intelligence is being integrated into classical performing arts in Russia.
After its initial run in Yoshkar-Ola, the ballet is scheduled to tour Uzbekistan, Abkhazia, and Belarus in 2026. In 2027, the production is expected to be staged in the United Arab Emirates, giving international audiences a chance to experience Russian classical ballet enhanced by contemporary digital design tools.
A distinctly Russian approach to AI ballet
Interest in AI among artists, directors, and cultural managers has been growing steadily in recent years. Rather than replacing human creativity, new technologies are increasingly used as supporting tools to speed up production, reduce costs, and ease the workload involved in mounting complex performances.
Internationally, AI-driven performances have already drawn attention. One notable example was the 2021 Prague production When a Robot Writes a Play, in which roughly 90 percent of the script was generated by artificial intelligence.
Russia has been running its own high-profile experiments. The country’s first AI ballet, Illumination, premiered in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk in 2024. In that project, GigaChat helped flesh out choreography and the storyline, Kandinsky generated sets and costumes, and SymFormer composed music in the style of contemporary classical works. A year later, the Mariinsky Theatre and composer Pyotr Dranga presented the opera Mandragora, in which AI completed music originally conceived by Tchaikovsky.
How IT expands cultural reach
The new Snow Maiden production sits at the intersection of classical culture and advanced AI technologies, offering a practical example of how digital tools can be applied in the arts. Sber’s IT developments have proven effective enough to be adopted by some of Russia’s most prominent creative institutions.
Experts expect future projects to push AI beyond visual design into areas such as audience-response analysis, adaptive performances, and interactive productions. Russian AI tools are also likely to gain new opportunities for international exposure as these projects travel abroad.
