Fair use and choreography

Joe sez, "My friend Julia is a choreographer who is doing some really interesting work looking at how sampling and fair use questions apply to the world of dance. This link is an artist's statement on an upcoming show, Punk Yankees:

I had the good fortune of receiving a choreographic fellowship from the Maggie Alessee National Center for Choreography (MANCC) to support the research and initial development of Punk Yankees, which is the title of our anniversary concert. While at MANCC, I began working with the ensemble to address my research questions: What defines "fair use" in dance? Is it permissible to "borrow" choreographic devices if the movement is reinvented? If the dancers can't execute the movement in the way it was originally intended, is there something interesting about that failure? If someone "stylistically" references a choreographer, should it be acknowledged as a derivative work, or is it what naturally occurs through dance education and lineage? Ultimately what we created was a work-in-progress that experimented with meta-theatrical devices and formal conventions to elucidate these provocative questions with transparency and humor.

The title Punk Yankees came from some research I was doing online about piracy and art. Matt Mason, author of the book The Pirate's Dilemma, talks about the fact that piracy and appropriation (in the sense of intellectual property) has historically been linked to the creation of new markets, which he calls a form of "punk" capitalism. He also traces the word "Yankee" to an old Dutch slang word "Janke," meaning pirate. Ironically, Matt Mason was recently a keynote speaker at Dance/USA's Annual Conference in Houston, TX (June 3-6), in the session "Fair Use and Piracy: How They Each Support a Sustainable Dance Field."

How do appropriation and copyright inform your work?

Steal this Dance

• [shadowfirebird]

  How cool would it be if I could license my movements? Or my own image? Creative Commons will allow me to license a picture I take of myself, but it will not, AFAICS, allow me to license my own face.

  Prototype license disclaimer (on a teeshirt): “Images taken of this person must be CC licensed or for personal use only”. Wouldn’t that turn the CCTV problem on its head?

• [arkizzle / Moderator]

  Ditto, Cicada and Jesse.

• [CFAAnn]

  I’m mixed on the concept. Dance artists are notoriously underpaid and it’s important for them to receive full credit (paid and otherwise) for their work. But creating legal constraints quite could end more of a boon for lawyers more than the artists.

• [Baldhead]

  It’s a bit like jazz if you ask me. If I play a famous solo (or even an unknown solo) note for note, nobody would start threatening copyright. This despite all jazz solos essentially being written by the performer, on the spot. I suppose if you copied huge swaths of choreography directly then it could be applicable but good luck finding a jury that could tell it was the same. Best to just make it known someone copied you. Internet is good for that.

• [Joe]

  Sorry folks, as a professional choreographer for thirty some odd years, I have to disagree. My choreography is what I sell. I have very strict contracts that indicate the number of times a piece may be performed, or if the company wants it exclusively, they will pay a different fee structure. How can anyone here say that choreography should not be copyrighted? What is different about a dance? It is a work of art, like a painting or a sculpture. You don’t get books for free do you?

• [Cicada]

  I would certainly hope that the act of moving would be forever outside the scope of copyright law.

• [jesseewles]

  The world’s gone crazy. There should be no copy right in the arts apart from stealing selling an others work unaltered.
  -Jesse Ewles Filmmaker