In December 2009, when I first started this blog, I talked about the Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s amazing work, which I encountered thanks to Jenelle Porter’s “Dance with Camera” show and program at the ICA Philly. In recent days, there has been lots of discussion about Beyoncé’s heavy borrowing from the Belge’s work for her “Countdown.” Bodies and movement present tough challenges for copyright laws. How do we both assure freedom of bodies and acknowledgement for dance work? Of course in this case, it was actually borrowing from bodies on film, specifically Thierry De Mey’s film made of De Keersmaeker’s dance. The first part of this clip, where costume, framing, mis en scene, and movement are nearly identical in the two films, seems more questionable than the later twirls and rolls on the floor. Movement itself should be outside of licensing, but the artistic representation of movement on film should be under a creative license, which would require Beyoncé’s acknowledgement to the avant-garde choreographer whose returns on this video will, I assure you, be far less than the millionaire’s.

The other question, of course, is the question of what happens to the politics of the piece. De Keersmaeker addressed this, arguing that the borrowing robs the movements of a certain power: “In the 1980s, this was seen as a statement of girl power, based on assuming a feminine stance on sexual expression,” she wrote. “I was often asked then if it was feminist. Now that I see Beyoncé dancing it, I find it pleasant but I don’t see any edge to it. It’s seductive in an entertaining consumerist way.” (Quoted on NYT Blog article)