Choreography Copyright Ownership: Who Owns a Dance in New York

Under 17 U.S.C. 102(a)(4), a choreographic work is protected once it is fixed in a tangible medium, such as a video or dance notation. A live performance that no one records is not fixed, so no copyright attaches. The recording also shows who authored the work, which matters when ownership is later questioned.

Copyright protects the original selection and arrangement of movement, not the underlying idea or a single step. Under 17 U.S.C. 102(b), the law protects specific expression rather than the idea behind it. Ownership attaches to that arrangement, not to any one move.

The legal standard does not change with whether a dance is called professional or casual. Protection turns on original choreographic authorship and fixation, while social dances, commonplace movements, and short simple routines stay outside it. Status does not add rights; original expression does.

Name the correct owner as the claimant, whether that is the choreographer, a company, or joint authors. Under 17 U.S.C. 412, the timing of registration and the commencement of infringement determine eligibility for statutory damages and attorney's fees. Filing an accurate intellectual property registration while ownership is undisputed keeps the record clean.

Beyond the deposit copy, the documents that decide ownership belong in your files: employment terms, any assignment, a commission agreement, and dated creation records. If more than one person contributed, a written agreement should state each author's share. These records, not the routine alone, resolve most later disputes.

Most weak filings share the same ownership errors.

• Naming an employer as author when no employment or assignment supports it.
• Treating commissioned choreography as work made for hire without meeting 17 U.S.C. 101.
• Failing to document a copyright transfer in a signed writing.

Under 17 U.S.C. 201, copyright vests first in the author, and a work made for hire instead makes the employer the author. A commissioned choreographic work does not become a work made for hire just because the parties call it one; an independent contractor's work must fit one of the categories listed in 17 U.S.C. 101 and meet the signed-agreement requirement. Choreography does not fit those categories, so ownership usually stays with the choreographer without a signed assignment.

An employee who creates choreography within the scope of employment gives the employer ownership as author. An independent contractor keeps ownership unless a signed transfer says otherwise. Courts separate the two using the agency factors from Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid (1989), so a written independent contractor agreement should address ownership directly.

Because commissioning choreography does not by itself make the work a work made for hire, a company seeking ownership may need a written assignment under 17 U.S.C. 204(a). If it only needs to perform the work, a license is enough and the choreographer keeps ownership. Setting the licensing or assignment scope in writing at the start reduces the risk of a later dispute.

Individual steps, basic social dances, and short common combinations sit outside copyright, whoever performs them first. A pirouette, a grapevine, or a familiar two-count move belongs to everyone. A claim over a single gesture generally fails, because the law reserves it for public use.

You can protect the original way you select, order, and arrange movements into a cohesive whole. A sequence can qualify even when its individual steps are common, because the creativity lives in the composition. Ownership attaches to that composition.

Choreography and the music it accompanies are separate copyrights with separate owners. Setting a dance to a song gives you no rights in that song, and using the music may require its own license. Owning the choreography and clearing the music are two different tasks.

Infringement means copying a substantial part of your protected expression without permission, measured against your original arrangement rather than shared common steps. Whether you can act on it depends first on owning the right at issue. Dated creation and fixation records support the claim.

A cease and desist letter carries weight only when the sender actually holds the right being asserted. It identifies the use, states the owner's rights, and sets a deadline to stop. Naming the wrong owner can undercut the demand.

Registration is generally required before filing suit under Fourth Estate v. Wall-Street.com (2019), and only an owner of the infringed exclusive right has standing. The core remedies in copyright litigation over dance are an injunction and monetary damages. Statutory damages run from $750 to $30,000 per work and up to $150,000 for willful infringement.

Fair use under 17 U.S.C. 107 can cover teaching, study, and uses that add new meaning or purpose. A class analyzing a short excerpt is different from restaging the full routine. Courts weigh all four statutory factors together, and each factor's weight depends on the facts.

Parody and criticism can qualify as fair use even when they borrow recognizable movement. The stronger cases genuinely comment on or transform the original rather than reperform it. Because the analysis is fact-specific, close calls turn on how far the new work reshapes the source.