November 29, 2005

Part III of IV: Building a Profitable Dance Economy

(This post consists of 4 parts: This is part III. Link to previous sections: Part I and Part II. Link to remaining section: Part IV)

3) Motions Tracking and Animation

So far, our goals have been:

- Create a universal, royalty-free dance notation language that is actually easy to use and is used by large numbers of dancers and choreographers.

- Support a market-driven economy that will risk private capital to develop software programs that will be used to notate all dance works.

Realistically, many dancers will want a faster way to notate dances. Even with the best software program, it's still going to take a lot of time to notate a dance.

So in addition to dance notation software, we can also turn to motion tracking and capture devices to record dance pieces in our UDNL.

Here's how motion tracking systems work:

A dancer (or athlete or actor) wears a series of small reflective markers that are placed on the joints of his or her body. Encircling the dancer are multiple video cameras. The dancer starts to dance. As the motion starts, the video cameras record the movement of the markers. The end result is that a three dimensional image is captured on a computer. Now there is a 3D wire frame digital sequence of images that represents all of the movements of the dancer through the duration of the dance piece.

Once this 3D sequence is created of a dancer or dancers, the software could be designed so that the wire frame images could be automatically converted into the UDNL.

If you've used motion tracking systems, you'll point out that motion tracking systems are way too expensive for tens of thousands of dancers to use to notate their work. You would be right if you considered the market as it is today – motion tracking systems are currently expensive.

But, once again, let's turn to the marketplace. If we create a universal dance notation language that is easy to use and is widely embraced, then we have a marketplace of tens of thousands of dancers who will want to notate their dance works in an accurate, fast manner.

This larger audience will encourage private companies in towns and cities around the world to create motion-tracking dance studios. Just as musicians go to recording studios (and there are recording studios just about everywhere), dancers would now be able to go to performance motion tracking studios.

As more motion-tracking recording studios pop-up, the more competition there will be for motion tracking devices, the more improvements there will be in motion tracking technology, and the lower the costs will be to purchase this equipment and set-up a recording studio. End result is that dancers don’t have to pay a lot to record their dance pieces using motion capture equipment.

4) Copyright Protection

It’s very important that the dance community has an improved means of protecting intellectual property rights of both dancers and choreographers.

Specifically, there should be a universally accepted approach to filing copyright applications so that all dance works are submitted in the same way to the US Copyright Office.

As of today, the US Copyright Office accepts filings for works of choreography in many different formats. Here are the basics:

Choreography and pantomimes are also copyrightable dramatic works. Choreography is the composition and arrangement of dance movements and patterns usually intended to be accompanied by music. As distinct from choreography, pantomime is the art of imitating or acting out situations, characters, or other events. To be protected by copyright, pantomimes and choreography need not tell a story or be presented before an audience. Each work, however, must be fixed in a tangible medium of expression from which the work can be performed.

Works of choreography can be submitted in the following ways:

for choreography, the work may be embodied in a film or video recording or be precisely described on any phonorecord or in written text or in any dance notation system such as Labanotation, Sutton Movement Shorthand, or Benesh Notation.

This hodgepodge of accepted submission formats makes it less likely that choreographed works will be submitted for copyright protection and makes it just about impossible for anybody to search a database of copyrighted dance works. The end result is that there is a huge void in the dance marketplace that is depriving many dancers and choreographers from making money.

Here’s how the copyright system should work:

a) All dancers are encouraged to record their dance pieces with the UDNL. Either dancers use a software program or motion capture to transform their works into the UDNL format.

b) All dancers are encouraged to take digital video and pictures of their dance works.

c) The US Copyright Office (and copyright offices around the world) should only accept choreographed dance pieces saved in the UDNL (both a digital file of the UDNL should be submitted along with a printout of the UDNL for the specific dance piece). Dance Works should also be submitted in digital video format and in digital picture format.

By following this approach, all dance works are submitted to the copyright office in a consistent manner and all dance works (the UDNL score, the video and the pictures) are saved in digital formats.

Now consider what happens:

a) Most dancers and choreographers for the first time ever will both notate their dance works and will submit their dance works to the copyright office in order to protect their intellectual property.

b) Dancers, choreographers and others will be able to search a database of copyrighted works to see what has been copyrighted.

c) Dancers and choreographers will now be able to convert their intellectual property (their preserved and protected dance works) into revenue streams – much more about this in section 6 below.

d) And, as a result of the new UDNL, the new dance notation software programs and motion-tracking recording studios, and the protection of this intellectual property, dance works will finally preserve their integrity for future generations. I was struck by an article, “A Ballet Writ on the Air” in this past Weekend’s Wall Street Journal by the paper’s dance critic Robert Greskovic about the staging and performance of Jerome Robbins’s “Afternoon of a Faun.” (Saturday/Sunday, November 26-27, 2005, page P9”).

Here’s the opening paragraph of Robert Greskovic’s article:

Masterworks in the performing arts are an elusive breed: they exist only when someone chooses to put them on. In the case of dances, keeping them on the boards can prove especially complex. With no internationally agreed upon means of notating a dance work’s “text” for posterity, the longer a dance lives, particularly beyond the life span of its choreographer, the more new audiences are dependent on whatever care is taken to maintain the choreographer’s intentions. As Agnes de Mille once noted, “’dancing’s writ on the air.

Greskovic has identified the problem, but he doesn’t realize there is a solution. Dance works can indeed be preserved for the ages with the choreographer’s intentions intact. So what I’m offering by my recommended approach to capturing, documenting and protecting dance works serves both commercial and artistic ends. It ensures that all works of dance are protected and preserved while at the same time laying the foundations for a market-driven dance economy that will help all dancers and choreographers attain greater success.

(This post consists of 4 parts: This is part III. Link to previous sections: Part I and Part II. Link to remaining section: Part IV)

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