Choreographer Courtney Ortiz takes her job as a dance teacher very seriously. Whenever she teaches a new class, she creates original routines for her students to learn. Ortiz is an instructor at Steps on Broadway, which regularly posts her routines on their Instagram. One video of her dancing, set to ABBA鈥檚 鈥淰oulez-Vous,鈥� garnered over 500,000 views. But a few weeks ago, a friend sent Ortiz a message: Did she know that her 鈥淰oulez-Vous鈥� choreography was being used to sell classes at a dance studio in Spain?
Ortiz did not. She had never worked with that Spanish studio, called Broadway House Madrid. The studio had posted a video of a number of its students doing her choreography, beat by beat, set to 鈥淰oulez-Vous.鈥� But her name did not appear anywhere in the Instagram post as the choreographer. Ortiz did even more sleuthing and she discovered that Broadway House Madrid had been charging for classes where they taught her choreography to students鈥攃horeography that she had created to be taught at Steps on Broadway was now being used in Madrid, without credit or compensation.
Ortiz to call out the Madrid studio and its owner Enric Marimon, calling what happened 鈥減lagiarism.鈥� The video accompanying that post has been viewed over 7 million times. 鈥淚t's not easy to be a teacher and create material after material and choreography each week you walk into class, but that's part of the job,鈥� Ortiz tells 半岛体育. 鈥淎nd if you are going to teach someone else's work, you have to inform your students whose work it is, where you got it from: 鈥業 received consent from them. We are going to make sure we credit them and honor them.鈥� And that 100 percent wasn't happening鈥tealing choreography is not OK and shouldn't be normalized in our industry.鈥�
Ortiz also discovered that Broadway House Madrid has used choreography from at least 12 different Steps on Broadway instructors, without providing proper credit. Ortiz adds that Marimon鈥檚 students have contacted her, saying that they had assumed he had created the choreography.
Steps on Broadway has on the matter. They also told 半岛体育, via a representative: 鈥淲e do not tolerate the plagiarism of another artist's work. Such actions undermine the integrity of our faculty and compromise the experience our dancers expect of Steps. We emailed Mr. Marimon and he agreed to stop using any Steps faculty鈥檚 videos for his own personal, financial gain. He provided assurance that he would immediately remove all content created by Steps faculty from his library.鈥�
Following outcry on Instagram, Enric Marimon posted an apology in English on his and Broadway House Madrid鈥檚 Instagram page. He tells 半岛体育 that, 鈥淭he majority of the work presented in my classes is indeed original, reflecting my personal choreography and teaching philosophy. However, I acknowledge and deeply regret the instances where this was not the case.鈥� He also adds that the videos of un-original choreography have been removed. Marimon also had a service called Broadway Jazz Online where students can, for a fee, access video tutorials of different choreography鈥攊ncluding that of the Steps Broadway instructors. That website has been taken down, as well. Says Marimon, 鈥淚 am committed to using only properly attributed or original work moving forward. My public apology was a step toward acknowledging this mistake and expressing my sincere regret to the affected choreographers.鈥�
Marimon also added that due to 鈥渕essages of hate and threats directed at me and my family,鈥� he鈥檚 made his personal Instagram and that of Broadway House Madrid private.
For the artists who spoke for this story, the situation with Broadway House Madrid is a symptom of a larger issue. In the age of TikTok and Instagram, it鈥檚 become too easy for choreographers to have their work replicated and distributed on social media without their consent鈥攎any times without their name attached.
鈥淲e're only displaying that choreography on social media to help market and advertise our work as creators,鈥� says Ortiz. But at the same time, she says that posting a video shouldn鈥檛 be seen as giving permission for anyone to recreate her work. In fact, reproductions are, 鈥渢aking work away from me as someone who gets paid to travel the world to teach that choreography. Now you're just going to learn it yourself and teach it in my place. That's taking work away from me.鈥� It wasn鈥檛 just Broadway House Madrid. Ortiz noticed that her work has been used without attribution in Canada and in South Korea.
It has become a common assumption that any dance move that鈥檚 posted online is free for public use, that it isn鈥檛 an artistic product which deserves proper crediting or compensation. Marimon admits that was his first assumption, saying, 鈥淭o be honest, I wasn鈥檛 aware that certain choreographies could not be used in class for educational purposes. Since these choreographies were posted on YouTube, I mistakenly believed I could use them, similar to how various routines are shared on platforms like TikTok.鈥�
In actuality, choreographers aren鈥檛 always happy when their work goes viral. 鈥淚鈥檓 aware of choreographers who have had their choreography go viral on Tiktok鈥hey were furious,鈥� says Emmy Award-winning choreographer Joshua Bergasse (who is currently working on the upcoming Broadway musical Smash). 鈥淚f you record a song and it gets airplay all the time, then imagine what your royalties would be. If I make a dance step, and it goes viral on TikTok, I don't get anything from that鈥ome of these viral TikTok dances, if a choreographer got, like, one penny, every time somebody watched that dance, that would be life changing.鈥�
Bergasse鈥檚 work was also used by Broadway House Madrid. And previously, a ballet company in California recreated his Tony-nominated choreography for On the Town鈥�the union that Bergasse belongs to, Stage Directors and Choreographers, sent a cease-and-desist letter on his behalf.
This practice of plagiarizing choreography has become so widespread that even the Choreographers Guild, an advocacy organization, : 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen a lot of news and social media lately about the unauthorized use of choreography, which unfortunately is not a new issue for our community. Choreographers鈥� Guild does not condone this behavior and is actively working to protect the intellectual property rights of choreographers in the U.S. and globally. We are encouraged by conversations on the subject happening all around the world, and we are hopeful for systematic change. Our vision is for choreographers to have a legal and institutional framework for choreographers to protect their work from unauthorized uses, and at the same time allow for licensing and compensation for authorized uses.鈥�
For choreographers whose work is created under the Stage Directors and Choreographers union contract, there鈥檚 protections against unauthorized reproductions鈥攖he union will provide legal counsel. Choreographers can also file for copyright protection of their work (and many have), but the process is long, costs money, and it is up to these individual artists to be vigilant of any instances where their work is being used without credit or compensation.
Famous choreographers have copyrighted their work, so that they have personal approval over who reproduces it or even teaches it. For instance, The Fosse/Verdon Legacy, created by Nicole Fosse, oversees the licensing for Bob Fosse and Gwen Verdon鈥檚 work鈥攜ou cannot even teach their choreography without express permission from the Fosse/Verdon Legacy.
But when the copyright infringement happens in a foreign country, outside of American jurisdiction, it becomes tougher for choreographers to uphold their intellectual property. Richard J. Hinds, whose Broadway credits include the recent Company revival and Come From Away, has had his work used 10 different times by a well-known choreographer in Mexico City named Memo Tellez. The Mexican choreographer has used Hinds鈥� work while teaching classes and even on local television programs, without proper credit.
After Hinds publicly called him out on social media, Tellez posted an apology, saying that he credits Hinds in his classroom and that the lack of credit online was the fault of his 鈥渃ommunity manager.鈥� In a follow-up post, Tellez says, 鈥淭he fact that I have used someone else's steps does not invalidate the trajectory, experience, and years I have working in the field, which from my perspective is what they want to achieve. If you want to make a change in the medium, that's perfect, but then do it with everyone's work and don't make it seem like a personal issue by looking only at my work.鈥� Both statements have since been deleted and Tellez did not respond to a request for comment from 半岛体育.
Hinds remains skeptical about Tellez's intentions, saying, 鈥淗is students and clients were reaching out to me and saying that that was not true, that he had never given me any sort of credit.鈥� He鈥檚 now been in contact with a copyright lawyer in Mexico City to pursue potential legal action.
鈥淎s artists, that's all we have. Our creativity, that's it,鈥� says Hinds. 鈥淎nd you put that out there, and you would think the community would respect that and support and celebrate. And so to have somebody steal it and claim it as theirs. I mean that, to me, is sort of the worst version of plagiarism you could possibly have. It's really painful, and it makes you feel vulnerable.鈥�
A group of affected choreographers have been in talks with Steps on Broadway and Broadway Dance Center, to figure out a way that those schools can better protect choreographers鈥� intellectual property. A representative for Steps on Broadway tells 半岛体育: 鈥淎s the industry evolves, and we navigate the digital age鈥攅specially through social media鈥攚e will mobilize our resources to facilitate dialogue about the current challenges faced by artists. We plan to host insightful discussions with industry experts on how choreographers can safeguard their work in this rapidly changing landscape.鈥�
Hinds says that one proposal that鈥檚 been brought up is providing a disclaimer on every video that Steps on Broadway and Broadway Dance Center posts online, saying that the choreography portrayed should not be reproduced without permission.
For this story, 半岛体育 contacted six choreographers who鈥檝e had their work recreated without permission. When asked what should be done next, all agreed that they weren鈥檛 looking for additional compensation. Instead, they advocated for a standard of ethics鈥攐ne where choreography is no longer seen as a free-for-all; where students aren鈥檛 just learning a dance, they鈥檙e also learning about the people who created it; and where dancers ask for permission before they reproduce someone else鈥檚 work for public consumption.
鈥淲e have to instill the values of integrity in dance into our students,鈥� says Bergasse. 鈥淪ometimes, I will teach original choreography from West Side Story. When I do that, basically, I'll say, 鈥榃hat I'm going to teach you right now is original choreography from the 1957 Broadway production of West Side Story. This was choreographed by Jerome Robbins鈥�...It's not just about giving credit, it's also about educating.鈥� Bergasse adds that he doesn't mind if other educators taught him in their classrooms, as long as they provided proper credit and context.
Adds Ortiz, 鈥淓ven if there's no legal action, even if there's no compensation that we can get in this whole situation鈥擨 think at the end of the day, as long as it's raising awareness and helping people understand the importance of why you need to credit appropriately. And why you need to ask for consent before using other people's choreography. I think that is the most important outcome of all of this.鈥�
