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Can Photographs infringe Dance Choreography Copyright?

Can Photographs infringe Dance Choreography Copyright?

Can you take photographs of a dance performance and publish them in an article or a book? This question came up before a US Court in the 1980s, a few years after choreography was added as a copyrightable work under the US Copyright Law. The case related to a popular choreographic work of George Balanchine, a renowned ballet master. Balanchine choreographed his own version of the ballet The Nutcracker, set to music by Tchaikovsky. The Nutcracker was a very popular…

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