Critical Race Theory and Copyright in American Dance

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

   PDF

2. Introduction: Preliminary Remarks

   • Caroline Joan S. Picart

   Pages 1-20

3. Comparing Aesthetics of Whiteness and Nonwhiteness in Relation to American Dance

   • Caroline Joan S. Picart

   Pages 21-44

4. Loíe Fuller, “Goddess of Light” and Josephine Baker, “Black Venus”: Non-narrative Choreography as Mere “Spectacle”

   • Caroline Joan S. Picart

   Pages 45-65

5. George Balanchine, “Genius of American Dance”: Whiteness, Choreography, Copyrightability in American Dance

   • Caroline Joan S. Picart

   Pages 67-85

6. Martha Graham, “Picasso of American Dance,” and Katherine Dunham, “Matriarch of Black Dance”: Exoticism and Nonwhiteness in American Dance

   • Caroline Joan S. Picart

   Pages 87-116

7. Moving into New Directions: Cunningham and Ailey

   • Caroline Joan S. Picart

   Pages 117-159

8. Conclusions: Quo Vadis?

   • Caroline Joan S. Picart

   Pages 161-174

9. Back Matter

   Pages 175-243

   PDF

The effort to win federal protection for dance in the United States was a racialized and gendered contest. Picart traces the evolution of choreographic works from being federally non-copyrightable to becoming a category potentially copyrightable under the 1976 Copyright Act, specifically examining Loíe Fuller, George Balanchine, and Martha Graham.

• aesthetics
• America
• choreography
• dance
• evolution
• gender
• USA

"Picart is familiar with not only the most relevant secondary literature on dance, choreography, and related topics, but also the copyright laws regarding artistic commodities. Her focus on specific figures and the most salient details of the actual history of modern dance makes this book an especially exciting one. I cannot imagine anyone interested in either dance or critical race theory who would not be drawn at least to peruse this work." - Vincent Colapietro, Liberal Arts Research Professor, Pennsylvania State University, USA"

"In Critical Race Theory and Copyright in American Dance, Picart succeeds not only in her immediate project, but also in debunking the myth that some fields of law are race/sex/gender neutral. In her sophisticated treatment of copyright and dance, she traces the history of copyright application to art, and shows with fascinating ability the structural inequities in the legal and art worlds and processes. She peels away at the layers of discriminatory impetus - be it conscious or unconscious - and makes a convincing case for the distortions they effect. This book is a must-read for students and scholars of critical theory - race, feminist, queer, of law and of art (in all its sub-disciplines)." - Berta Hernandez-Truyol, Levin, Mabie and Levin Professor of Law, University of Florida, USA

Caroline Joan (Kay) S. Picart, formerly a tenured associate professor of English and Humanities at Florida State University, is a joint Juris Doctor-MA Candidate (WST) at the University of Florida Levin College of Law and an adjunct professor of Humanities at Santa Fe College.

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