В балете почти нет слов, но движение и музыка всё равно рассказывают историю.

Because в here means in and it is followed by the prepositional case:

• балет → в балете

So в балете means in ballet or in the ballet depending on context. Since Russian has no articles, the phrase can be understood either generically (in ballet as an art form) or more specifically if the context makes that clear.

In this sentence, it most naturally means something like in ballet in general.

Нет is the normal Russian way to say there is no / there are no.

So:

• нет слов = there are no words
• почти нет слов = there are almost no words

Russian often expresses absence with нет rather than with a verb like to be.

Compare:

• Здесь нет людей. = There are no people here.
• В балете почти нет слов. = In ballet there are almost no words.

Because нет requires the genitive case.

The noun слово has these forms:

• nominative singular: слово
• nominative plural: слова
• genitive plural: слов

After нет, Russian uses the genitive, so:

• нет слова = there is no word
• нет слов = there are no words

That is why the sentence says почти нет слов.

Почти means almost.

So:

• почти нет слов = there are almost no words

It softens the statement. The sentence does not say ballet has absolutely zero words in every possible case, only that words are very limited.

Here движение means movement in a general, abstract sense.

Russian often uses the singular for abstract or uncountable ideas:

• музыка = music
• искусство = art
• движение = movement

So движение и музыка means movement and music as artistic means, not specific movements.

If you said движения, that would sound more like movements as separate individual actions.

Because the subject is compound:

• движение и музыка = movement and music

Two things joined by и normally take a plural verb.

So:

• движение рассказывает = movement tells
• музыка рассказывает = music tells
• движение и музыка рассказывают = movement and music tell

Here всё равно means all the same, nevertheless, or still.

So this part:

• но движение и музыка всё равно рассказывают историю

means:

• but movement and music still tell a story
• but movement and music tell a story anyway

This is a very common expression in Russian.

Important: learners often first meet всё равно in sentences like:

• Мне всё равно. = I don’t care / It’s all the same to me.

But in this sentence it has the meaning nevertheless / anyway.

Because the word is actually всё, pronounced roughly like fsyo.

In many printed texts, Russians often write е instead of ё, so you may also see:

• все равно

But the meaning here is still всё равно, not all are equal or anything like that. For learners, it is helpful to remember the correct form as всё равно.

Because рассказывать историю means to tell a story, and that is the natural idea here.

• рассказывать = to tell, to narrate
• говорить = to speak, to say

Movement and music do not literally speak, but they can tell a story metaphorically. Russian uses the same metaphor as English here.

So:

• музыка рассказывает историю = music tells a story

Because it is the direct object of рассказывают.

The basic noun is:

• история = story / history

In this sentence it changes to the accusative singular:

• историю

So:

• рассказывать историю = to tell a story

This is a regular pattern for feminine nouns ending in -я:

• история → историю
• мелодия → мелодию

Here it means story.

The Russian word история can mean both:

• history
• story

In this sentence, because of the verb рассказывают and the context of ballet, the meaning is clearly story.

Yes. Russian word order is fairly flexible, although different orders can change the emphasis.

The original:

• В балете почти нет слов, но движение и музыка всё равно рассказывают историю.

This is a very natural neutral order.

You could also say:

• В балете почти нет слов, но всё равно движение и музыка рассказывают историю.

This gives slightly more emphasis to всё равно.

Russian word order is often used to manage focus and style, not just basic grammar.

Yes, in this sentence но is simply but.

It connects two contrasting ideas:

• there are almost no words
• movement and music still tell a story

So the contrast is:

• few words
• yet the story is communicated anyway

The main stresses are:

• В балЕте
• почтИ
• нет слОв
• но движЕние
• и мУзыка
• всё равнО
• расскАзывают истОрию

A rough pronunciation guide:

• В балЕте почти нет слов, но движЕние и мУзыка всё равнО расскАзывают истОрию.

A few helpful notes:

• в sounds like v
• ё in всё sounds like yo
• дв in движение can feel tricky for English speakers, so it helps to practice it slowly: dvi-zhe-ni-ye

Yes. Russian has no articles, so в балете can mean:

• in ballet (general)
• in the ballet (specific)

Only context tells you which one is meant. In this sentence, it most likely means in ballet as an art form, but the Russian wording itself does not force that distinction.

It breaks down like this:

• В балете = in ballet
• почти нет слов = there are almost no words
• но = but
• движение и музыка = movement and music
• всё равно = still / anyway / nevertheless
• рассказывают историю = tell a story

So the structure is basically:

• In ballet, there are almost no words, but movement and music still tell a story.

It is a good example of:

• prepositional case after в
• genitive after нет
• a compound subject with a plural verb
• an accusative direct object
• the common expression всё равно