Huddersfield University's Graduate Costume Show

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University of Huddersfield  Graduate Costume Show 15 June 2018 17:00 Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield

I am often asked by friends who regard balletomania as an addiction how I came to be hooked. Even  though I saw a lot of theatre, attended a lot of concerts and visited a lot of art galleries and museums as I was growing up, I never had much to do with ballet.  That was largely because my father, a kindly and erudite man of letters, regarded it as slightly disreputable owing to its association with the Soviet Union and the tendency of the classical tutu and male dancers' tights to reveal more than many considered decent.

My interest in ballet was sparked by an exhibition of early 20th century Russian art at the Victoria and Albert Museum or possibly Royal Academy when I was about 16 or 17.  There I saw some of the work of Leon Bakst and was quite bowled over. I learned of his work with Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes. I found that he was just one of many great artists who had been commissioned to design for the ballet.  When I should have been revising for "A" levels and Oxbridge scholarships in Hammersmith Library I was pouring over its massive collection of reference books on theatre design and ballet.  I watched what I could on television and became an early fan of Peter Darrell's Western Theatre Ballet. Eventually the London Festival Ballet staged a triple bill at The Coliseum that included the The Firebird, widely regarded as Bakst's masterpiece.

On the pretext of treating an elderly aunt I persuaded my parents to pay for me to see the show. It was better than I had ever imagined. The music, the colour, the movement and the drama absorbed all my senses.  It was the most thrilling experience that I had ever known.  The auditorium exploded at the curtain call.  The cheering, whooping and growling from the crowd, the thunderous applause, the mountains of flowers were theatre in themselves. Nobody with any soul could fail to have been moved by that experience.  Although I had to wait till I got to St Andrews with an independent income before I could afford another show or ballet lessons my passion for dance had been ignited.

I experienced a similar frisson  of excitement last night when I saw another costume for The Firebird .  That garment had been designed by Amelia Sierevogel who has just graduated from the University of Huddersfield with a bachelor's degree in Costume with Textiles. The costume was modelled by Erin Phillips who also reads Costume with Textiles at Huddersfield.  As soon as she came on stage I recognized her as a fellow adult ballet student. Erin did not simply display that costume. She danced in it.  Much of her performance was on pointe.  It was - or rather costume and dancing were - spell binding.

Amelia's costume was just one of several excellent works that I saw last night at the Graduate Costume Show at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield.   The students on that course learn to design costumes for theatres around the world as can be seen from the placements.  Amelia's were with the Australian Ballet and the Australian Opera last year.  Students pick characters from theatre, literature, film or television and create costumes for them. Last night we saw costumes for Cinderella and Ophelia as well as The Firebird and many other characters.  There were several designs for the ballet. Erin was not the only model on pointe last night.  The show opened spectacularly with a scene from Midsummer Night's Dream with a splendid Bottom dressed as an ass.

Although last night's show was filmed, it is likely to be some time before any of it is posted to YouTube.  Happily one can get some idea of its format from the above recording of Rhianna Lister's designs for characters from A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy from the 2016 show.

As I said above, I was led to ballet by Leon Bakst so I cannot stress too much the importance of theatre design. Over the years I have been impressed by other designers such as Nicholas Georgiadis, Osbert Lancaster and more recently Lez Brotherston   The course at Huddersfield is described in Costume with Textiles at the University of Huddersfield - Natalie Day. It is clearly an important resource for the theatre and thus for all of us.

Although it has nothing to do with costume design or fashion I must report another find.  On my way back to my car I passed an eatery called Rostyk Kitchen that advertised jollof rice. It is a delicacy from West Africa that my late spouse used to cook and I miss it so.  West African food requires a lot of preparation and the ingredients are not always readily available. I can cook simple dishes like plantains and sweet potatoes but not plasas, pepper chicken or groundnut stew. Now I no longer need to mither Vlad the Lad's mum and dad, my sisters in law in London or my relations by marriage in Freetown when I get a craving.  My feast of jollof rice and chicken completed a perfect day.

Oh dear I am beginning to sound like a lawyer

A week ago I had lunch with a friend who is also into ballet.  We met just before 14:00 but stayed for the whole afternoon. We had a lovely time talking about ballet, ballet, ballet and yet more ballet. We would have stayed longer had a waitress not thrown us out. Although we talked almost exclusively about ballet there were 5 minutes when we discussed law. The reason we talked about law was that my friend had read Branding and Ballet - Copyright and Rights in Performances 3 May 2014, Branding and Ballet - Licensing the Brand 18 April 2014 and Branding and Ballet - Ten Top Tips 13 July 2014 and wanted some clarification on a few points. As other people are likely to have similar questions I thought I would mention them here.

Who owns copyright in a ballet?
A ballet is a composite work consisting of a story, choreography, music, sets, costumes, lighting and much more. Anybody has contributed any of those things is likely to have created a copyright or other intellectual property right. Thus there will be separate copyrights in the story, choreography, score and so on. It is unlikely for the same person to own all of those rights unless it is a very big company that has taken extensive legal advice from specialist lawyers.

As the author of the work that person is likely to be the first owner of the copyright unless he or she has created it in the course of his or her employment in which case the employer will be the first owner. If the author or his or her employer has been commissioned to create the work the contract under which the work was commissioned may state that the commissioner shall own the work. If not, copyright will belong to the author but the commissioner will almost certainly have a licence to perform that work.

How can copyright subsist in choreography?
S.1 (1) (a) of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 provides that copyright subsists in original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works. S.3 (1) includes works of dance and mime within the definition of dramatic work. It is important to have regard to  s.3 (2) which provides:

"Copyright does not subsist in a literary, dramatic or musical work unless and until it is recorded, in writing or otherwise..."

Notation by a Benesh choreologist would meet that requirement but so probably would a video recording of a ballet or enchainement.

How long does copyright subsist in a choreographic work?
In this country and the rest of the EU it is the life of the author plus 70 years. In other countries the term may be longer or shorter.  As Marius Petipa died in 1910 any copyright that may have subsisted in his work has long expired. Ashton, however, died only in 1988 so his works are still in copyright.

Don't forget that some works have been modified extensively by modern choreographers. La fille mal gardée, for instance, was first performed in Bordeaux in 1789 less than a fortnight before the storming of the Bastille but the version that everyone in this country knows and loves is Sir Fred's and as I have said above all his works are in copyright.

So what does copyright restrict?
Most importantly performing the work in public (see s.16 (1) but also copying the work, issuing copies to the public, renting or lending the work to the public, communicating the work to the public or making an adaptation of the work. Don't forget that those restrictions are subject to a large number of exceptions which are set out in Chapter III of Part I of the Act and that many of the things that you may wish to do may be expressly or impliedly licensed. It is important to get specialist advice on all of that.

What about other intellectual property rights?
Dancers and musicians are performers for the purposes of Part II of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and they have the right to object to broadcasting, filming or taping of their performances under s.180 (1) (a). So, too, do broadcasters, film or sound recording companies with the exclusive right to record such performances pursuant to s.180 (1) (b).

Costume designers may have unregistered Community design and unregistered design rights in any costume designs that they may create in addition to any copyrights that may subsist in the fabric designs or indeed the costumes themselves as works of artistic copyright. Similar rights may also subsist in props and three dimensional scenery.

Finally, be careful about titles or names of ballets. Copyright can't subsist in a single word or even a phrase as such but if a ballet (or for that matter film or play) is associated with a particular company, choreographer or performer there may be circumstances in which the company, choreographer or performer could complain that you are representing a connection with his even if you use completely difference choreography or music.

OK. So what do I do if I want to stage a ballet?
Find out who the rights holders are of every work that comprises the ballet and ask for a licence or permission from each of them. It has become considerably easier to obtain such permission since 25 Oct 2014 when an orphan works licensing scheme came into force. I have written quite a lot about this in my IP blog (see Orphan Works Licensing 3 Nov 2014 NIPC Law).  It could be made even easier if Professor Hargreaves's proposal for a copyright clearing house ever sees the light of day (see Digital Copyright Exchange: Hooper's Final Report 31 July 2012 NIPC Law) but that idea seems to have been put on the back burner for the time being.

In the meantime I am thinking of setting up and running a cost-effective web based copyright rights clearance and licensing service and will be glad to talk about it if you want to get in touch.

Further Reading

Irving David and Ben Challis  Dancing a Fine Line - Choreography and Copyright Dance UK News Issue 70 Autumn 2008

Irving David and Ben Challis   Copyright and Copying  Dance UK's website

Dance is just as important as Maths

TED stands for technology, entertainment and design. It describes itself as

"a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less). TED began in 1984 as a conference where Technology, Entertainment and Design converged, and today covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 100 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world."

The Great and the Good have given talks including Bill Clinton, Jane Goodall, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Richard Dawkins, Bill Gates, Bono, and many Nobel Prize winners.

One of the most popular speakers is the educationalist Sir Ken Robinson. His speech "How Schools Kill Creativity" which is embedded above has been watched nearly 28 million times. That's right. 28 million. Almost the population of Canada.

That speech is remembered for the catch phrase "Dance is an important as maths." Looking at the transcript I don't think he actually used that phrase but that was certainly the meaning he conveyed:

"There isn't an education system on the planet that teaches dance everyday to children the way we teach them mathematics. Why? Why not? I think this is rather important. I think math is very important, but so is dance."

A little later in his speech he tells a charming story about the ballerina and choreographer Gillian Lynne. In his talk Sir Ken refers to her as the creator of Cats but my favourite work is "A Simple Man" which she made for my beloved Northern Ballet. Here's how the story goes:

"I'm doing a new book at the moment called "Epiphany," which is based on a series of interviews with people about how they discovered their talent. I'm fascinated by how people got to be there. It's really prompted by a conversation I had with a wonderful woman who maybe most people have never heard of; she's called Gillian Lynne -- have you heard of her? Some have. She's a choreographer and everybody knows her work. She did "Cats" and "Phantom of the Opera." She's wonderful. I used to be on the board of the Royal Ballet in England, as you can see. Anyway, Gillian and I had lunch one day and I said, "Gillian, how'd you get to be a dancer?" And she said it was interesting; when she was at school, she was really hopeless. And the school, in the '30s, wrote to her parents and said, "We think Gillian has a learning disorder." She couldn't concentrate; she was fidgeting. I think now they'd say she had ADHD. Wouldn't you? But this was the 1930s, and ADHD hadn't been invented at this point. It wasn't an available condition. (Laughter)People weren't aware they could have that.

Anyway, she went to see this specialist. So, this oak-paneled room, and she was there with her mother,and she was led and sat on this chair at the end, and she sat on her hands for 20 minutes while this man talked to her mother about all the problems Gillian was having at school. And at the end of it --because she was disturbing people; her homework was always late; and so on, little kid of eight -- in the end, the doctor went and sat next to Gillian and said, "Gillian, I've listened to all these things that your mother's told me, and I need to speak to her privately." He said, "Wait here. We'll be back; we won't be very long," and they went and left her. But as they went out the room, he turned on the radio that was sitting on his desk. And when they got out the room, he said to her mother, "Just stand and watch her." And the minute they left the room, she said, she was on her feet, moving to the music. And they watched for a few minutes and he turned to her mother and said, "Mrs. Lynne, Gillian isn't sick; she's a dancer. Take her to a dance school."

I said, "What happened?" She said, "She did. I can't tell you how wonderful it was. We walked in this room and it was full of people like me. People who couldn't sit still. People who had to move to think." Who had to move to think. They did ballet; they did tap; they did jazz; they did modern; they did contemporary. She was eventually auditioned for the Royal Ballet School; she became a soloist; she had a wonderful career at the Royal Ballet. She eventually graduated from the Royal Ballet School andfounded her own company -- the Gillian Lynne Dance Company -- met Andrew Lloyd Weber. She's been responsible for some of the most successful musical theater productions in history; she's given pleasure to millions; and she's a multi-millionaire. Somebody else might have put her on medication and told her to calm down."

Thank goodness that doctor didn't. What a remarkably perceptive, far sighted, enlightened man he was.   And what a wonderful mother.

We in Britain will get a chance to listen to Sir Ken in conversation with Sarah Montague early tomorrow morning immediately after the midnight news. For the next few days we can even listen to them on the iPlayer.

Finally, a word on TED. Anybody can join the mailing list. I've been on it for years.  If you do you will get an email with a selection of some of the best talks every Saturday afternoon. It's one of my weekend treats.

Branding and Ballet - Copyright and Rights in Performances

Theatre Royal Drury Lane 1821                                           Source Wikipedia

This is the fourth in my series of articles on ballet and branding which is my thank you to companies, theatres and dancers for a lifetime of pleasure watching their performances. The others are "Ballet as a Brand? How to bring More Money into Dance for Companies and Dancers" 13 March 2014, "Protecting the Brand" 31 March 2014 and "Branding and Ballet - Licensing the Brand" 18 April 2014. In this article I shall discuss two important intellectual property rights ("IPR") for companies, theatres and dancers: copyrights and rights in performances.

What is IP?
Intellectual property ("IP") is a portmanteau terms for the bundle of laws that protect investment in intellectual assets.  Intellectual assets are creations of the mind that give one business a competitive advantage over all others. Such assets can be a new invention, a blockbuster film or novel, the cachet that is given to luxury product and so on.  

Intellectual assets fall into four categories:

• Brands
• Design
• Technology, and
• Works of art and literature.

The laws that protect the investment in creating those assets in the UK include the Patents Act 1977, the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 ("CDPA") and the Trade Marks Act 1994. The rights that those laws confer, such as patents for inventions, copyrights in original works of art and literature and registered trade marks for signs that distinguish one business's goods or services from those of all others are types of IPR (intellectual property rights). 

The exercise of those rights can be very valuable for a business which is why we regard them as property.  As they protect creations of the mind or intellect we call them intellectual property.

Copyrights and Rights in Performances

The intellectual assets that copyrights and rights in performances protect are works of art and literature. 

Copyrights have existed in one form or another since the days of Queen Anne. The first copyright statute for this country is still referred to as The Statute of Anne. Copyrights prevent the unauthorized copyright, distribution, performance and other exploitation of works that are written, drawn or otherwise created in some permanent medium such as film or optical or magnetic memory. 

Rights in performances are much more recent. These protect the performances of actors, musicians, dancers and other performers from unauthorized broadcasting, filming or taping and other exploitation of their performances. The existence of those rights has only been possible since the development of sound and motion picture recording and transmission technologies. 

The CDPA

In the UK copyright and rights in performances are conferred by different parts of the CPDA.  Copyright is conferred by Part I of the Act and rights in performances by Part 2.  The CPDA came into force on the 1 Aug 1989 and has been amended many times since then. The Intellectual Property Office has helpfully compiled an up to date version of Parts 1 and 2 of the Act together with other relevant legislation.

International Agreements

The UK is party to a number of international agreements that require foreign governments to protect the intellectual assets of British businesses and individuals in their territories and the British government to protect the intellectual assets of foreigners here.  The agreement that provides reciprocal protection of works or art and literature is the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works ("Berne").  The agreement that provides reciprocal protection for performances is the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations ("Rome"). Berne and Rome have been supplemented by a number of other international agreements of which the most important are the WIPO Copyright Treaty and the WIPO Performances and Phonograms Treaty. One of the reasons why Parliament enacted and has revised the CPDA was to enable the UK to comply with those conventions and treaties.

Copyright Works

The CDPA protects the following types of work from unauthorized copying, publishing, performance and other distribution in the UK:

• Original artistic, dramatic, literary and musical works
• Broadcasts, films and sound recordings, and
• Typographical arrangements of publications.

That covers such works as the story, score, the choreology, broadcasts and HDTV transmissions and some of the art work such as scenery and fabric designs.  One of the many things that the Court of Appeal decided in Massine v De Basil[1936 - 1945] MCC 233, one of the few copyright cases relating to ballet, was that there is no such thing as copyright in a ballet. There are instead a bundle of copyrights in the works that make up a ballet such as an outline of the plot, the music, notation, artwork for the scenery, costumes and other works. Secondary copyrights are created in any videos that are made during class and rehearsals as well as in any sound recordings that may be made. Yet more copyrights are made in the notes, photos, compilation, editing and typographical arrangement of the programmes. 

Rights in Performances

Performers including dancers and those who have contracted with a dancer or other performer to broadcast, film or tape a performance such as the BBC, a film studio or a record company have the right to object to the broadcasting, filming or taping of a performance regardless of whether the performance takes place in a theatre, TV studio or film set.

Creating a Copyright?
There is no system of copyright registration in the UK though there is in some other countries. Copyrights come into being the moment a work in which copyright can subsist is created by a British citizen or resident or a citizen or resident of any other state that confers confers protection on the works of British citizens and residents within its territories pursuant to the Berne Convention or some other agreement with the UK government. Most countries of the world are party to Berne and the few that are not have entered other multi or bilateral agreements with the UK.

Copyright can subsist in any of the works listed above provided that it is not copied wholly from another work. Essentially copyright rewards the labour, skill and taste that has been expended on a work. Thus, a poet may write a poem which creates a literary copyright; an artist a drawing that creates an artistic copyright; and an editor may choose the poem and the drawing and combine them with other poems and drawings in an anthology which creates yet another literary copyright in the compilation.

Creating a Right in a Performance
Consent is required for broadcasting, filming or taping of a performance from the moment the dancer or other performer walks on stage to the final curtain call so long as the performance takes place in the UK or by a national of a country that is party to the Rome Convention or some agreement with the UK.

Who owns Copyright?
Usually the author (that is to say the person who makes the work) is the first owner of the copyright subsisting in the work but there are a number of exceptions. If the author is employed to create the work under a contract of employment or apprenticeship the author's employer becomes the first owner unless the employer and employee have agreed otherwise. Merely commissioning a work, however, does not usually confer copyright on the commissioner unless the circumstances suggest that that is what the parties had intended as happened in Massine v de Basil.  When commissioning a score, choreography or other work it is important for the parties to think about who is to own the work and what rights (if any) each of the parties has or should have in its exploitation.

Who owns a Right in a Performance?
In the first instance it is up to the dancer or other performer to consent to the broadcasting, filming, taping or other exploitation of his or performance.  In practice the terms upon which such consent is given have been negotiated by Equity on behalf of its members. Such terms are incorporated into individual performers' contracts of employment. Broadcasters, film and recording studios that have negotiated exclusive contracts to record a performance can also object to broadcasting, filming and taping of performances.

How to make Money from Copyrights and Rights in Performances
Copyrights and rights to make, distribute and otherwise exploit copies of recordings may be assigned or licensed for money or moneysworth.   How much will be paid by way of a royalty, licence fee or other payment will depend on supply and demand. The work of a well known artist, choreographer or composer will generally command a greater payment than that of a lesser known one.  Some copyright owners assign their rights to organizations known as "collecting societies" which collect payments on behalf of all their members and distribute them after deducting their expenses as individual dividends. BECS (British Equity Collecting Society) collects royalties for licensing performers' rights on behalf of their members.

Moral Rights
In addition to the rights mentioned above which are generally referred to as "economic rights" performers and some copyright owners have rights to be identified as performer or author and the right to object to derogatory treatment of their works that are known as "moral rights".  These subsist quite independently of the economic rights and cannot be assigned.

Enforcement
Violation of an IPR is known as "infringement".

Large scale deliberate infringement of copyright (known as "piracy") and rights in performances ("bootlegging") are offences that can be punished by up to 10 years imprisonment and an unlimited fine. Local authority trading standards officers have a statutory duty to investigate and prosecute such offences.

IPR owners can also sue infringers in the civil courts for injunctions (orders of the court to refrain from or stop infringements on pain of fine or imprisonment for disobedience), damages (compensation for past infringements) or an account of profits (disgorging any profits that have been made from infringements), surrender of infringing copies and their costs (legal expenses for bringing the action). In England and Wales most claims for IPR infringement (including small claims) are brought in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court ("IPEC") or the Intellectual Property list of the Chancery Division of the High Court of Justice.

Collecting societies also bring proceedings in the civil courts on behalf of their members.

Further Reading
The Intellectual Property Office has published a very useful guide entitled "Copyright, Essential Reading" which can be downloaded in pdf from its website. Equity also has a considerable volume of materials on performers' rights which is accessible to its members.

Should anyone require additional information he or she can call me during office hours on 020 7404 5252 or send me a message through my contact form, twitter, Facebook, G+, Linkedin or Xing.

Happy May bank holiday everybody.