Hetty Blades
The are different conventions and expectations around ownership associated with different dance genres and contexts. However, generally speaking dance practices don’t commonly use codified notation systems and instead circulate through the teaching and copying of movement (see Bench 2020). The centrality of the body and the inevitable differences between each instantiation of a dance means that particularly complex to identify and claim ownership.
There are legal mechanisms through which ownership can be claimed for some kinds of dance. For example, copyright law in the UK protects choreographic works as long they meet the conditions of being capable of being performed, original and fixed (Whatley et al 2015: 70-71). However, not all dances meet these criteria. Although the case took place in the US, the initially dismissal of the Hanagami case (see Blog Post One in this series) demonstrates similar issues. Furthermore, even in cases when dances are protected by the law, as many have pointed out – copyright cases are rare (Van Camp 2019: 90, Whatley et al 2015: 70, Gover 2021: 64).
Instead, the ownership of dances is often managed through social norms and expectations. In recent writing, the notions of the ‘commons’ (eg. Bench 202; Burt 2017; Ravetto-Biagioli 2021; Kraut 2016; Ellis 2022; Blades 2022) and the ‘gift’ (eg. Franko 2004; Bench 2020; Ravetto-Biagioli 2021; Leach 2014; Kraut 2016; Foster 2019; Blades 2022) have been used to interrogate the ownership, sharing and circulation of dance both on and offline. In different ways, these concepts point to the idea that dance is a resource that is often shared or given outside of legal structures and often with an indirect or minimal relationship to economic structures, rather than being directly bought and sold.
I propose that ontology and ownership intersect in both legal and social contexts. In the next post, I focus on the intersections of ontology and copyright law. The final post will focus on how ontology overlaps with social norms around ownership.
