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.

Autorentext
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.

Inhalt

1. Introduction 2. Comparing Aesthetics of Whiteness and Non-Whiteness in Relation to American Dance 3. Loíe Fuller, "Goddess of Light," and Josephine Baker, 'Black Venus": Non-Narrative Choreography as Mere 'Spectacle' 4. George Balanchine, "Genius of American Dance": Whiteness, Choreography, Copyrightability in American Dance 5. Martha Graham, "Picasso of American Dance," and Katherine Dunham, 'Matriarch of Black Dance': Exoticism and Non-Whiteness in American Dance 6. Moving into New Directions: Cunningham and Ailey 7. Conclusions: Quo Vadis?