{"id":26165,"date":"2021-07-24T01:27:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-24T01:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=26165"},"modified":"2021-07-26T14:17:34","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T14:17:34","slug":"theres-a-long-history-of-dances-being-pilfered-for-profit-and-tiktok-is-the-latest-battleground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/theres-a-long-history-of-dances-being-pilfered-for-profit-and-tiktok-is-the-latest-battleground\/","title":{"rendered":"There\u2019s a long history of dances being pilfered for profit \u2013 and TikTok is the latest battleground"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Jill Vasbinder<\/a>, University of Maryland, Baltimore County<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2020, 14-year-old Jalaiah Harmon created what would become one of the biggest viral dance sensations on TikTok.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But few users knew that Harmon, who is Black, invented the dance<\/a>, which she dubbed the Renegade \u2013 at least not until a month later, when The New York Times drew attention to her case<\/a>. That\u2019s because a TikTok user had copied the dance, and it was that TikToker\u2019s rendition that went viral.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because Harmon didn\u2019t get credit, she wasn\u2019t able to reap the benefits of more views and followers, which, in turn, could have led to collaborations and sponsorships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Harmon is only the latest in a long list of women and people of color whose choreography and dance work have been pilfered for profit \u2013 a story that dates back to the origins of jazz dance<\/a> in the 19th and early 20th centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But these days, TikTok is the battleground \u2013 and it isn\u2019t just Harmon who\u2019s had her work lifted. In June 2021 several popular Black creators were so fed up with having their dances stolen or not credited that they decided to join forces and go on strike<\/a>, refusing to post new dance content to bring attention to the issue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choreographers fight for royalties<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Laying claim to a dance isn\u2019t as straightforward as, say, a poet saying they have exclusive rights to a poem they\u2019ve written.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Designed to protect \u201cintangible cultural goods,\u201d copyright, according to the U.S. Copyright Office, gives \u201cAuthors and Inventors the exclusive right to their respective Writings and Discoveries<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Established in the hopes of rewarding innovation and promoting progress, the first U.S. copyright laws, which were established in 1787 and 1790<\/a> and based on statutes from Britain, didn\u2019t grant rights to artists and dancers. Only writers were protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, the very concept of owning choreography didn\u2019t exist until the 20th century<\/a> when dancers started to lay claim to their work in court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1909, an Indian dancer named Mohammed Ismail tried to sue white dancer Ruth St. Denis<\/a>, claiming he was the originator of one of St. Denis\u2019 \u201cOriental\u201d dances. In 1926, African-American blues singer Alberta Hunter<\/a> claimed she held the copyright to the popular dance the Black Bottom<\/a>, an African American social dance. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rQ9qapVmWi4?wmode=transparent&start=0 George White\u2019s Black Bottom became a national sensation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hunter performed the Black Bottom<\/a> in front a white audience in 1925. A year later, the dance appeared in George White\u2019s revue \u201cScandals<\/a>,\u201d which ignited the Black Bottom dance craze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, little came of Ismail and Hunter\u2019s efforts. More attempts would follow<\/a>. In 1963, performer Faith Dane<\/a> sued M&H Company for royalties for her choreography in \u201cGypsy\u201d and lost. In the 1950s and 1960s, choreographer Agnes de Mille<\/a> advocated for copyrights specific to choreography because she got very limited royalties for her work on the hit musical \u201cOklahoma!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t until 1976 that copyright protection was updated to specifically include<\/a> choreographic works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A delicate dance with copyright<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

But this hasn\u2019t exactly led to a windfall of royalties for choreographers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congress has established four guidelines<\/a> to determine whether a work can be granted copyright protection: originality, fixation, idea versus expression and functionality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In choreography, it\u2019s the fixed \u201cexpression\u201d that\u2019s being protected, not the \u201cidea\u201d behind it. This is why New York City Ballet can copyright their choreographed version of \u201cThe Nutcracker,\u201d but other artists can create their own versions or expressions of the story as plays, storybooks or choreographed dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Artists and scholars still debate<\/a> what, exactly, it is that a dancer or choreographer is trying to claim as their own. Is it the dance as a work of art, the choreography or the specific performance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So while creators can apply to register the recorded expression of their idea with the government, many choreographers \u2013 perhaps due to so many gray areas in what is eligible for copyright \u2013 still don\u2019t realize that they they have something of value that can or should be protected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George Balanchine, the founding artistic director of New York City Ballet, had a heart attack in 1978. But he didn\u2019t draw up a will until he was told the dozens of dances he created would generate licensing income<\/a> that would go to next of kin unless he directed otherwise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When pop culture pulls from avant-garde<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Avant-garde artist Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker\u2019s brief spat with Beyonc\u00e9 illustrates the tricky nature of determining what constitutes copyright infringement or plagiarism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2011, De Keersmaeker claimed that Beyonc\u00e9<\/a>, in her music video \u201cCountdown<\/a>,\u201d had plagiarized De Keersmaeker\u2019s dances from two different works \u2013 \u201cRosas danst Rosas\u201d and \u201cAchterland\u201d \u2013 without giving her credit. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vlLZExpgBOY?wmode=transparent&start=0 Anna De Keersmaeker\u2019s \u2018Rosas danst Rosas.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both artists made public statements acknowledging what happened. It seems that though a substantial amount of De Keermaeker\u2019s movement was transposed into \u201cCountdown,\u201d it was also transformed \u2013 from a white, elite avant-garde setting to a Black pop culture setting. A case could be made for fair use, the doctrine<\/a> that permits the unlicensed use of copyright-protected works in certain circumstances. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2XY3AvVgDns?wmode=transparent&start=0 Beyonc\u00e9\u2019s \u2018Countdown.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, this episode illustrates the gray areas of what is protected by copyright. Does performing someone else\u2019s dance movements in a new setting \u2013 for an audience who may not have any connection or knowledge of its origins \u2013 make it OK? Does this make it a new work?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright protection was devised primarily to promote progress. The thinking went that if authors and artist were given control of their work they would create more original work, earn a living from it and continue creating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the incentive for progress can also exist outside of copyright protection. This is what dancer-turned-lawyer Jessica Goudreault argued in a 2018 article for the Cardozo Law Review<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She writes that for some dance styles \u201cthe field might never evolve without the opportunity to copy,\u201d which \u201csustains and encourages innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would argue that this applies to the dances on TikTok. Without the ability for users to freely imitate the dances, those moves wouldn\u2019t go viral. The creators of the dances would not get their moment in the sun \u2013 however brief it is in social media \u2013 and other creators might be less inspired to innovate if they didn\u2019t have the examples of those who came before them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[Over 106,000 readers rely on The Conversation\u2019s newsletter to understand the world.<\/em> Sign up today<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can copyright protection even work for TikTok?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If TikTokers and choreographers are looking to license a new dance, should they rely solely on the copyright system and all its restrictions? Or is there another way to get credit and promote innovation in dance?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When dance videos are posted to the web, they are, by default, protected under copyright. In theory, this should prevent dancers from having their work used by others without permission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In reality, it is often difficult to know who made it first and what constitutes fair use. When does doing some dance steps turn them into a new dance piece? Furthermore, discovering the original author or authors of a dance isn\u2019t easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s because unlike posts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, TikTok posts aren\u2019t time-stamped<\/a>. Posts appear in a user\u2019s feed in order of popularity, not chronologically. Identifying who posted the content first is tricky.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would suggest that common law copyright is not the right solution here \u2013 and that the principles of Open Source<\/a> might better serve creators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Open Source, a social movement by computer programmers, is underpinned by licensing criteria that ensures integrity of authorship, among other principles. Open-source licensing could resolve the issue of the correct people receiving credit for their works. This could take the form of an Open-source license \u2013 which has yet to be clearly laid out for dance works \u2013 or a Creative Commons<\/a> license with a \u201cCC-BY\u201d designation that requires attribution, but leaves space for copying, adjusting, remixing and innovation. For this to happen, TikTok would need to add a time and date stamp, in addition to a license preference feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps honoring legacies and influences<\/a> by naming where something came from can begin to heal the damage that\u2019s taken place over the years to people of color and other choreographers who\u2019ve had their work cribbed with nary an acknowledgment or thanks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jill Vasbinder<\/a>, Senior Lecturer in Dance, University of Maryland, Baltimore County<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jill Vasbinder, University of Maryland, Baltimore County In January 2020, 14-year-old Jalaiah Harmon created what would become one of the biggest viral dance sensations on TikTok. But few users knew that Harmon, who is Black, invented the dance, which she dubbed the Renegade \u2013 at least not until a month later, when The New York […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":26166,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293,8025],"tags":[501,10217,438,6223,5878,8143,10216,702,7437],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26165"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26165"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26165\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26167,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26165\/revisions\/26167"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}