It's about the stillness and the power that one holds being still, standing strong, being present. He also wanted to incorporate J-setting, a movement style Knight knew in which dancers perform in a lead-follow format, similar to marching band majorettes. He first visited Japan when he was invited to teach dance workshops in Hiroshima in 2004, and since then has worked as a choreographer for major Asian pop artists and groups including Jolin Tsai, Namie … It's to protect the creator from these huge corporations that come in and take advantage. “No one was taking Megan lightly before I came into the picture,” says Knight. Lifestyle Read the full cover story: http://blbrd.cm/Dy5xIKi After all the work, all the pain, all the troubles they deal with, they steadily continue to rise up and show out. AdChoices So why was it important to you to get copyright protection? You tap on your cheek just a little bit, you look at it, and then you go back into your choreography. “A collecting society does two very compelling things for creators: It creates a scale whereby they can collect revenues, and it’s a force for creative people — a political force and an economic one,” says Stanford University Law School’s Paul Goldstein, a global authority on intellectual property. Choreographer Jonte Moaning, best known for his work with Beyonce's "Single Ladies", has been revealed to be working with T-ara for their comeback album! That kind of statement goes far beyond the steps he creates. No, the point of copyrighting isn't to protect us from [people] doing the dances at home. Aemcy shirt and pants, Adidas shoes, Vitaly necklace, choker and ring, Maple Supply rings. There are certain hit songs that are almost inseparable from the dance moves that go with them. The world of professional dance is a small one built largely on reputation — so, historically, choreographers haven’t been tempted to outright copy each other’s work, resulting in few occasions (until recently, at least) when the idea of infringement litigation even seemed necessary. For Knight, “every movement has a purpose, and it’s about the music but also about the full package of what the dance is interpreting,” says Shakira, who worked with him on her Super Bowl halftime show this past year. 2. There are certain hit songs that are almost inseparable from the dance moves that go with them. What I do, whether it's personal or business, it all relates back to the Black female. Now 31, Knight is one of the music industry’s most sought-after choreographers, a creator of iconic dance-centric visuals at a time when they can propel a song to the top of the charts and even change the course of a career. Beyoncé and Jay Z got married in 2008—but didn’t tell anybody. Today, choreography still feels a bit like the Wild West of copyright. "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" by Beyoncé was a hit in 2008 and continues to be one of her most popular songs. After winning an MTV Music Award for Beyoncé’s Single Ladies music video, JaQuel hit fame, and at only 20 years of age the accolades keep coming. Bankhead's choreography includes Normani’s “Motivation” video, a tour de force of dance that burnished her solo clout last year. Knight is defining the way some of today's biggest stars move, and he's getting recognition in a way that many choreographers never do — by copyrighting his work. If you look online, it is easy to find side-by-side comparisons of the “Single Ladies” and “Mexican Breakfast” videos flagging the very reference points that Gatson and Knight intended, as if there’s a game of choreographic “Gotcha!” going on. The music video achieved fame for its intricate choreography and its deployment of jazz handswith a wrist twist. Aemcy shirt and pants, Adidas shoes, Vitaly necklace, choker and ring, Maple Supply rings. You may have never heard of Jaquel Knight but if you've seen Beyonce's latest video "Single Ladies… I mean, how I got here as an artist is being inspired by those who came before me. Critics have compared the song to Aretha Franklin's "Respect" and Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive", prompted by their lyrics, which all promote female empowerment. (“On social media, right away everyone is an art connoisseur, and as soon as you go up, you’re critiqued,” says Knight with a rueful laugh.) It makes use of staccato bounce-based hand claps, Morse code beeps, an ascending whistle in the background, and a punchy organic beat. Fellow choreographer Bankhead agrees that copyrighting dance moves is crucial to prevent choreographers from being taken advantage of. Of the more than 500,000 applications the office receives for millions of works The Copyright Office approved the registration on July 9, making Knight (as far as the prominent copyright experts interviewed for this story know) the first commercial choreographer in pop music to succeed in doing so for his work. it validates our positioning and ownership, Live Updates: Protests For Racial Justice, Megan Thee Stallion Protests Breonna Taylor Ruling On 'SNL'. Hecht, Knight and Pelloni decided to begin by registering the choreography in the “Single Ladies” video — by now widely acknowledged as an iconic piece of art in its own right, and one that could clearly demonstrate what a copyrightable commercial choreographic work looks like. A year before “Single Ladies,” Gatson made a prescient comment in The New York Times: “If she does it the right way, people won’t say, ‘Have you heard Beyoncé’s new music?’ They’ll say, ‘Have you seen the new Beyoncé?’ ” Now they do — and Knight’s choreography is a big reason why. If Knight could successfully register his work, Hecht knew, he could then license it to others who wanted to use it in public performances, from feature films to global tours. “I was able to show what I’m capable of. 1 decade ago. Yahoo Life. Do you fear that that's what's going to happen here? But within the framework of copyright, those references are considered “building blocks” — raw material artists build upon in new work, like certain chord phrasings in music — which are not only acceptable but almost expected in an art form like dance. Even amid the coronavirus pandemic, he’d had a busy past few months. Copyright Office’s associate register of copyright and director of registration policy and practice. “He’s giving you an overall aura. And on a cultural level, it could be paradigm-shifting. ", "For me, it was all about tapping into my upbringing," Knight says. He’d teach her a bit each day, then sit down and talk about how they wanted the dance to make women feel. Short-form content in particular — for example, the “WAP” dance challenge on TikTok, which borrows from Knight’s choreography and has around 10 million unique videos — is a huge area of commercial growth. It's definitely the joy, though. Read the full cover story: http://blbrd.cm/Dy5xIKi “Single Ladies Several things could account for that. Gatson had a choreographic reference in mind, which he had discussed with Beyoncé before Knight got involved: a Fosse routine called “Mexican Breakfast” that featured three women dancing in a line on a bare stage. It has been credited with starting the "first major dance craze of both the new millennium and the Internet", triggering a number o… But within the commercial sphere, he says, “You only know what you see. These themes of his work — uplifting Black entertainers, helping them own their power through statements that are sometimes political — make Knight’s own quest to copyright-protect his work as a Black artist something of a political act itself. JaQuel is demonstrating, ‘Well, if the law is inherently against me, how is it that I’m able to use it to my advantage?’ ”, Knight’s mission may not exactly be a cause for celebration for everyone in the industry — especially video platforms like Twitch, YouTube and TikTok, which depend on user-generated content, much of which involves performing, or essentially appropriating, existing choreography. So why was it important to you to get copyright protection? Set Design by Ali Gallagher at Jones Management. A lot of the moves in "Single Ladies" are a variation of the basic moves at the beginning of the song. Set Design by Ali Gallagher at Jones Management.

. The choreography for the song is based on a style of dancing known as "J-Sette." Kesha. While the first measure is in 3 4, it is set in common time 4 4 except for a change to 3 4 for one measure before the final chorus. It’s something that has really grabbed at our souls.”, The Dance Notation Bureau, a nonprofit where Weber is executive director, is the home of Labanotation, the most commonly used form of codified dance notation. Even with a mask on, his joy in the memory is palpable. What kind of synchronized ass shake is this?’ ” he says, bursting into laughter. “It’s embarrassing, but he’s gotten used to it.” Knight’s choreography, she says, is “quite important in our dance heritage. Excuses!”. Now, they’re figuring out what those licenses might look like and cost, along with what back-end opportunities might exist for choreographers with copyright ownership. 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