Choreographing Copyright: Race, Gender, and Intellectual Property Rights in American Dance

Review

"A magnificently complex argument based in meticulous archival research, Choreographing Copyright examines the function of copyright in both affirming and contesting key cultural values for artists of different raced, classed, and gendered identities."--Susan Leigh Foster, Distinguished Professor, UCLA"Choreographing Copyright is a provocative book that sheds new light on the history of modern, vernacular and commercial dance. By attending to the raced, gendered and classed biases that influence choreographers' claims of originality, authorship and ownership, Kraut lends keen insight into the implicit social politics behind the fixing of moving bodies. She finds in vibrant case studies arguments about subjectivity, property, protection and value writ large and pushes us to recognize the instabilities of bids for personhood through creative expression."--Nadine George-Graves, Professor, University of California San Diego Department of Theater and Dance "Choreographing Copyright is a well-written, well-researched (many of the pages are almost half foot notes), well-stated, well-argued dance tome. Even when the reader might not agree with the contentions made, there is absolutely no doubt to Kraut's thoroughness, thoughtfulness and expertise."--Critical Dance"[E]xpertly researched..."--The Dance Current"CHOREOGRAPHING COPYRIGHT is an illuminating book about copyright's complicated engagement with choreographic expression in the United States, written 'from a critical dance studies perspective that foregrounds race and gender' (p. xvii). It deserves a thoughtful reading by a wide audience within the IP academy, but will be of particular interest to anyone whose work brings a critical or interdisciplinary lens to bear on issues of copyrightability, authorship, ownership, equality, and the circulation of ideas within and across creative communities." --The IP Law Book Review

About the Author

Anthea Kraut is Associate Professor in the Department of Dance at University of California, Riverside and author of Choreographing the Folk: The Dance Stagings of Zora Neale Hurston (2008).