SUBMITTED NOV. 5, 2010
Hello all, back from a much needed off-season break. I recently had a dance teacher call me about a touchy subject. The question...."What constitutes stealing choreography?” She had been teaching in the studio and added an ending pose similar to what she had seen at a dance show, modified of course. One of her teen students was concerned that they were stealing choreography. “Are they”, she asked? It was modified, not even the same amount of people, different song, just liked the concept and went with it, adapted it, made it her own. My opinion is this…I think that with TV, YouTube, online videos, etc., imitation is indeed the best form of flattery. Now, do I believe in someone taking a routine or even a combo step-by-step is right, no way! But, where do artists in the dance world get their ideas and inspiration.....from other artists of course. I decided to do some research and see who really created some of those dances and dance moves we all see and we all do? I decided to go for the “mother ship” (to quote a friend) of dance: Ballet. Ballet began in the fifteenth century (1400's) in Italy. It was all male (how sad that it is so much the opposite theses days), and it was an improvisational form of the sport of fencing.
King Louis XIV was so taken with the art that he opened an academy for it in Paris in 1661. Ballet developed and changed through this and other French academies, people were taking the basic foundations and adding their own art and style developing it into the disciplined art form we know. Ballet was given a facelift from the Russians in the early 20th century and it was brought to NYC in 1934. How much copying and manipulation do you think went into the hundreds of years of ballet to make it what it is today. Think of the dance steps themselves… a ballet pirouette uses turn out and is performed outward, when jazz and modern dance evolved from ballet the move was recreated and performed inward, copy of artistry? Just think, if those first fencers would have saved it for themselves we might not have had the "mother ship" (there is that stolen term again) of dance we have today. I told the teacher that copy happens to all of us and unless done in full out stolen step-by-step variations, we should consider it a compliment. That’s what I do when other competition systems copy us in changing their convention format, advertising cheapest fees, giving to charity, book the same competition venues we find and starting a director’s blog. I say hey, we must be doing something right, and thanks for the compliment because copy IS the best form of flattery! Changing the subject just a bit… Guess who is currently being credited with inventing the YMCA dance? Some say the Dick Clark show started it, but a soon to be released Latin American publication article says credit belongs to one of our longtime TOP judges (who must remain nameless for awhile since the article hasn’t been released yet). Apparently while performing professionally in Latin America, “he” created it as a party dance. Talk about some dance moves that have been copied over the years! Finally, I want to draw your attention to our 1st ever “Most Anticipated Act of the Year” Video Competition. It’s going on right now with video submissions set to close November 30. Voting for the winner begins December 8 and closes January 7. On January 8 we’ll announce the winner and award $300 in prize money. More information is available here on the website, or email me at
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with your questions about the video competition, or any other issue you want to discuss. Until next time, Kim.
