Rethinking Ballet Heritage through the Digital Ecosystem: a PND-Inspired Approach

Cultural heritage can be understood as a dynamic ecosystem that brings together both tangible and intangible aspects. These can be enriched through modular digital infrastructures designed to integrate diverse sources, ranging from archival documents to embodied testimonies. Within this perspective, techniques such as OCR, natural language processing, computer vision, and 3D modeling enable the transformation of archives from static repositories into interactive platforms for analysis, visualization, and public engagement. Building on this approach, the article examines how the methodological framework of Italy’s National Plan for the Digitization of Cultural Heritage (PND) can be applied to the preservation and valorization of ballet heritage, taking as a case study a hypothetical theater archive of ballet materials. The paper contends that such infrastructures not only safeguard and interconnect diverse sources but also provide a sustainable model for the transmission and revitalization of intangible cultural heritage in the digital age.