During the period of active cultural contacts between Russia and Japan, the appearance of the book "Japanese Traditional Dance" A. Zhukova (Moscow, Prometheus, 2005, 120 p.) is not an accidental event. In Russia, as in many Western countries, there is a growing interest in Japanese choreographic art, and schools of Japanese traditional and avant-garde dance are being created. However, choreographers, performers, costume designers and set designers do not always understand what traditional Japanese dance is, what its genre specifics are, and what its overall composition and movement pattern depend on.

In the book "Japanese Traditional Dance", the author shows for the first time its genre specifics and connection with modern trends in Japanese choreography: with" jazz-modern " dance, conditioned by the development of Japanese jazz, and with the avant-garde form of butoh*.

For the first time, A. Zhukova also highlights the problem of matching classical and folk dance in the understanding of Japanese and Europeans. An analytical review of contemporary Japanese performing arts, especially pronounced in gagaku**, No, Kabuki (chapters 1 and 2), explains the similarities and differences in the perception of "classical" and" folk " music and choreographic art by professionals (ballet dancers, choreographers, teachers) - Europeans and Japanese.

For the first time, the young choreographer also poses a number of methodological and practical problems in teaching choreography, namely: the connection of Japanese traditional choreography not only with traditional music, but also with specific methods of sound extraction, which depend on historically established accents in choreography (for example, accentuated training of poses rather than movements; features of the positions of the hands, head, and bodyspecific aesthetic and everyday behavior of Japanese men and women, which are reflected on the stage, but often are not taken into account even by well-known European choreographers.

The book's carefully constructed structure helps us understand that modern traditional performing arts in Japan exist both in theatrical form and in traditional choreography, emphasizing that Japanese theater and choreography are based on the unity of music and dance.

The author also shows the differences between European music and traditional Japanese music, and in this connection - the psychophysical differences in the performance plasticity of Japanese and European movements (Chapters 3,4,5).

No less important is the observation made in the book that when setting Japanese musical or other stage material, when transferring the Japanese plot to the Western stage, both Japanese and Western directors, choreographers, and conductors do not take into account changes in history and a specific historical moment, which corresponds to a certain spatial worldview of the Japanese, forming a specific artistic worldview. This is a thesis that can be developed in a separate independent work.

Finally, A. Zhukova developed a methodology for teaching traditional Japanese dance, identifying similarities and differences with the methodology of teaching classical dance. The book contains a photo application, as well as drawings of Japanese national instruments, choreography plots and notes of the most popular dances in Japan (children's, solo female and male, pair).

In the book, the reader can get acquainted with the author's practice of staging and teaching Japanese traditional dance in Russian art schools, taking into account the main differences in the worldview of Japanese and Europeans.

The study of A. Zhukova deserves special attention of choreographers and teachers, since it builds up the methodology of teaching exercise and composition of Japanese traditional dance in comparison with the national school of teaching classical dance and Russian folk dance. This book will be of interest to anyone interested in Japanese culture in all its forms.

Buto is an avant-garde form of traditional choreography that emerged in the late 1950s after the atomic tragedies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

** Gagaku-music and dance of the Japanese imperial court, the oldest performing art in Japan.

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