When using choreography of a known choreographer, ie: Fosse, Graham, Petipa, and then revising it for a dancer, who do I list as choreographer for a competition? In a program, I would list it as "Fosse, with revisions by Me". This isn't an option for competition, so I'm not sure how to list it. Jen50

Why are you doing Fosse choreography and entering it in competition?

It's not fosse. I was using that as an example. I am simply asking about protocal. I do, however, see ballet variations used at competitons. I have never done this before, and wondered how it would be handled. I've had interesting replies.

If I recognized choreography that was out and out copied, I would give 0 points for choreography. That is copyright infringement and I look down on it.

I had a friend, who was my student, later teacher, who took classes with another school, that we competed against, when she was up there visiting friends. They were a wonderful school.

Well, she had a competition tap group that she gave this fabulous dance to them. When we competed, the SO came over to her and said, "How could you steal my choreography (step for step and song) and do it here?!!"

She could have said something to the comp directors, but let it go, but warned her not to again. She said that if she had asked permission, she would have given it. That was the end of that relationship!

It is one thing to use a movement or be inspired, but unless someone is willing to get written permission, and prove it, it should not be done.

Besides, I can look at a piece, that I love, but when I play the music, I always see it differently.

It is okay to use it in class, to teach, but always warn students that it cannot be used as performance choreography for the public.

I once judged a competition that had a piece entered that I knew very well. It was featured on the old Showstopper televised competition by Southern Strutt. I owned a copy of the television show. Anyway, this studio copied the choreography almost to the "T" and duplicated the costume as well. I couldn't just sit there without calling them out on it. Which I did. Needless to say the dance director of that studio was quite upset.
I felt it was an extremely risky move on her part.

OMG, you can get into SO much trouble doing that. Fosse's works are copyrighted. If you want to adapt them, you have to purchase a license from his estate, AND you have to get all your modifications approved. The only way what you're doing could POSSIBLY be considered legal (and this is hypothetical because what you're doing is NOT legal) is if you invoked the fair use doctrine. But this isn't fair use - it's stealing. It is both illegal and a violation of comp rules to use Fosse's choreography in a comp. You will be sued AND the adjudicating body will be sued.

jen50 wrote:

I do, however, see ballet variations used at competitions.

And the variations you see are in the public domain. Those which aren't, like Balanchine, aren't used (unless someone gets permission, which is unlikely since it will cost a lot of money). So your first task is to see if the variation you want to use is in the public domain. Now, let's assume that the choreography you want to use IS in the public domain. The the question is really "When using choreography of a known choreographer WHOSE WORKS ARE IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN..." etc. And maybe someone can answer this question.

Here is information on choreography copyrights.

www.csulb.edu . . .

Here is a book to find, "The Public Domain" by Stephen Fishman

Amazon, Barns and Noble, Nolo, etc. have it on line.