Original Choreogrpahy being used in other productions

With most of the shows from MTI, a choreographer's manual comes with it, and it has all of the original choreography in it. None of our choreographers use it, however. They like coming up with their own stuff.

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The Directors and Choreographers' union, SSDC, tries to help their members strike deals with licensing companies so that the original choreography and staging become credited and "rentable." In other words, if I am directing Victor/Victoria, and I want to use Rob Marshall's choreography for one or more numbers, I can pay royalties to have my choreographer lift it from a videotape and I have to credit Rob Marshall in the program.

That said, there is a ton of "intellectual" or "creative" property out there that has been passed from dancer to dancer for decades. I have never seen a production of West Side Story, A Chorus Line, or The King and I, for example, that worked without the original steps, and when the original steps are used, the show is far more successful.

As a choreographer, I have my own feelings about all this. I wouldn't want people to lift all of any show or number I have done without crediting me (and I look forward to the day when I can make royalties off such a practice!), but I also realize that it's nearly impossible to police every production of anything.

Joey McKneely choreographed the original Broadway production of Smokey Joe's Cafe, which was released on DVD. McKneely happened to be working in the midwest and went to see a small regional production of Smokey Joe's for fun. The entire show was exactly lifted from the DVD, yet he could find no mention of his name in the program. He called SSDC and eventually got a settlement from the show's producers and credit in the program. That's how it goes these days.

Updated On: 8/1/06 at 12:19 PM

When doing a community show, I think it's pretty lame to copy choreography/gags/ideas from videos and epscially the movie versions. I've done Joseph three times, and the last time there were some really fun "new" ideas in it, and I thought our director was so clever for coming up with them... and then I saw the just released video with Donny Osmond and there it all was. Which made me feel lame and not like he was clever at all.

It has been a while since we did it, but as I recall the contract from MTI for West Side Story says you must use the original choreography from Jerome Robbins.....I don't remember the exact phrasing but it was along those lines.

"It has been a while since we did it, but as I recall the contract from MTI for West Side Story says you must use the original choreography from Jerome Robbins.....I don't remember the exact phrasing but it was along those lines."

Yeah, most of the contracts say that you have to use the original choreography, but our choreographers never do.

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I've mentioned this in other threads but often times licensed choreography states that if more than a certain percentage is used then the original choreographer must be credited however, if less then the choreographer can take full credit for it. Dancing is a bit different from other trades as is passed form one dancer to another. All choreographers "steal" movement from others. Often times it has to do with what style a choreographer is trained in.

Take Fosse for example. He has a lot of Jack Cole influences in his movement (thanks to Gwen who was a Cole dancer). My particular style fuses a lot of Fosse and Bennett with a few shakes of Cole, Champion, Kidd and Tune thrown in. It doesn't mean that I am necessarily taking credit for their work but that my work is hugely influenced by them. For instance, every single show I choreograph I throw some Fosse in as a salute and offering to the god himself. It may be just one step or a sequence of steps or a hand gesture but I don't give credit to him. People in the "know" are aware that it is Fosse movement if not then they think it is mine.

I'm not being as eloquent as I would like but does that make any sense?

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