Moving Online: Ontology and Ownership of Internet Dance

Dance movements are often copied and reworked and legal cases related to such activities are rare. However, the online circulation of dance means that movements and video files are easily reproduced. The open sharing of movement that has often occurred in dance communities is being expanded and tested now that dance occurs online more than ever before and in new and experimental formats. The restrictions put in place in response to the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in new forms of dance which have raised questions about how online dances are understood, described and exchanged. Moving Online: Ontology and Ownership of Internet Dance addresses these issues, asking 1) What kind of thing is an online dance? 2.) Is dance online a different thing to dance offline? 3) Do different cultural histories result in multiple different online entities? 4) How does dance's ontology shape social practices around ownership online? 5) How can ontological understanding support artists to share their work online?

The project will generate conversations within the dance sector about dance ontology and support artists to share and manage their dances online. The research will result in deeper understanding about the kinds of things produced through the making and sharing of dance online and how alterations, adaptations and new versions relate to existing content. These ideas will help choreographers and dancers to recognise and negotiate ownership and exchange. Issues of ownership in an increasingly online world are not exclusive to dance, and the findings will also be relevant to practitioners and scholars working in other art forms. Nevertheless, dance has a particularly uneasy relationship to intellectual property law, perhaps due to its embodied nature and the lack of a universally adopted notation system, meaning that examining practices within the dance sector will offer rich data through which to consider the intersections of ontology and ownership online.

I will interview choreographers and dancers, observe making processes and examine examples of dance online. The primary focus of the research is South Asian dance, hip hop and contemporary theatre dance. The research is carried out in partnership with Sadler's Wells Theatre and One Dance UK. These two organisations work closely with dance artists through advocacy, programming and support and have experienced the challenges faced by the dance sector regarding the ownership of dance online. The partners will share their experiences, help with the recruitment of artists and support the development of sector facing publications and dissemination. The project will involve the commission of three choreographers to undertake choreographic processes focused on the making of online dances and the publication of a model for ontological analysis which will be shared online and via introductory workshops. The research will also be disseminated through public talks hosted by One Dance UK and Centre for Dance Research (C-DaRE) at Coventry University, a seminar series, a magazine article in One and/or Hootfoot (published by One Dance UK), a project blog and website and a public symposium. The findings will also contribute to a monograph on ontology and ownership for dance online, which will be the first of its kind in dance studies.