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Terpsichore

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  1. Terpsichore
    I shall write a longer article on this topic in Terpsichore and maybe NIPC Law when I can get round to it but, in the meantime, here are the basics. S.1 (1) (a) of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended) defines copyright as a property right which subsists in among other things original literary, dramatic, musical or artistic works. Most ballets comprise all four of those types of works. Copyright can subsist in the libretto as a literary work, the choreography as a dramatic work provided it is recorded in some way, the backdrop and fabric of the costumes as an artistic work and the score as a musical work. Copyright subsists in each work from its creation and lasts in the case of the above mentioned works for the life of the author plus 70 years (as Jewel has rightly said). However, that is not necessarily the end of the story because choreography tends to be updated from time to time. For example, Petipa may have created the work in Russia 130 years ago but it may have been updated by Madam, Ashton, Wright, Bintley and so on and so on. Each of those additions and revisions is a separate copyright work with its own copyright term. The same is true of a set design, arrangement of the score and so on and so on. You should be aware that in some countries copyright lasts even longer than the life of the author plus 70 years. There are also other IP rights of which you should be aware such as authors' moral rights in relation to certain copyright works created after 1989, unregistered design right in respect of costume and prop designs (though the term is much shorter), performers' rights, publication right in respect of unpublished works. The remedies for infringement can be draconian. An injunction (order of the court to refrain from a specified act with the sanction of imprisonment or financial penalty for disobedience) compensatory and in some cases additional damages, delivery up of infringing materials and costs. An action in the Chancery Division can cost the losing party his or her own legal fees plus a contribution of hundreds of thousands of pounds towards the legal fees of the successful party. There is a £50,000 cap on the amount of costs that can be awarded in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court but that limit does not apply to the unsuccessful party's own legal fees and expenses. Some of these risks can be mitigated by before-the-event insurance from specialist brokers. Copyright infringement can be an offence in some circumstances carrying a custodial sentence of up to 10 years, an unlimited fine or both. I suggest that you seek professional advice from a member of the Intellectual Property Bar Association under the public access scheme, a law firm that belongs to the Intellectual Property Lawyers Association or possibly a patent or TM attorney with some experience of the entertainment industry. Good luck!
  2. Terpsichore
    One of the few bits of good news to emerge from Afghanistan is that the national cricket team will be allowed to compete in Australia (see Nic Savage Taliban green lights historic Australia vs Afghanistan Test match. And maybe they will catalyse the reintroduction of our art form.
  3. Terpsichore
    Very sad news. I saw her only once in Giselle when American Ballet Theatre visited Covent Gender in Aug 1970. Though that show took place over half century I can remember every detauk as though it were recorded on film, I had never seen such virtuosity, Nor had I seen such drama. I have never seen better performance of Giselle though I have see many good and even a few great performances of the ballet since then. I haven't written a feature on her but I have recorded a memory of one balmy August evening in my re-launched blog.
  4. Terpsichore
    I am very pleased to have taken part in this event. Speaker after speaker stressed the importance of dance in Nigeria. I met some very impressive dance artists including Jemima Angulu who is a choreographer, teacher and performer. She runs a very successful studio in Abuja. Their main interest is in traditional dance and contemporary dance but ballet is becoming increasingly popular Subscribers may remember the video of Anthony Madu Mmesoma which went viral. I told them the story of Michaela DePrince, how she found a picture of a dancer in the street outside her orphanage, her meteoric progress through the Dutch National Ballet and what a gracious, personable young woman she is everyday life. I recommended "Hope in a Ballet Shoe", In many ways the Nigerian's have a lot to teach us. They are quite used to the concept of the third stream of revenue or rather the second as state funding is very limited. They use technology to keep dance alive perhaps even more than we do. I would love to do a similar seminar in this country.
  5. Terpsichore
    As many subscribers know I blog about dance. Two of the topics that I have discussed in my blog are the growing interest in ballet in Sub-Saharan Africa and the need for a third stream of funding for dance from advertising, merchandizing and sponsorship to supplement revenues from ticket sales and government funding.. On the first topic readers will be interested in two articles by Lindsay Alissa King that appeared recently in the online newsletter Ballet Rising: "Imagining the Future of Ballet from Nigeria" ; and "Ballet in Nigeria" I have also blogged about classical ballet classes in Kenya and I was pleased to see that the RAD featured one of those classes on World Ballet Day. In respect of a third stream of funding for dance from advertising, merchandizing and sponsorship the Intellectual Property Lawyers Association of Nigeria is holding a webinar on the Business of Dance with a panel of speakers from dance and the law at 13:00 today and I am one of the speakers,. f anyone wants to attend the webinar, the meeting IP is 883 6067 4030 and the pass code is "Dance".
  6. Terpsichore
    Sadly I did not see the Dutch National Ballet's "Dancing Apart Together" but I have an excellent account from someone who did as well as some beautiful photos of the show by Hans Gerritsen and Michel Schnater which the company's press officer kindly sent me. This was the company's first live performance since lock-down and the review is my first review of a live performance since March. According to Yvonne Charlton who saw a matinee performance on 20 Sept the show consisted of 12 short pieces starting with Fokine's Dying Swan, continuing with van Manen's Solo and David Dawson's On the Nature of Daylight and then 8 new works by Ted Brandsen, Ernst Meisner, Juanjo Arques and others. Even though the orchestra consisted only of strings and the audience was a quarter of the auditorium's capacity it must have been a wonderful experience. Yvonne's article is Terpichore's is our first review of a live show since lock-down. It is good to be blogging about dance again.
  7. Terpsichore
    O dies mirabilis. A test match against the West Indies, the return of recreational cricket and a challenging but enjoyable class with Shannon Lilly of San Francisco Ballet. What more could anyone desire today? If it rains for the rest of the summer or Holmfirth returns to lock down we have at least one day's glorious respite.
  8. Terpsichore
    This is the first time I have been able to arrange for my company a masterclass with a former principal ballerina of one of the world;s great ballet companies. Shannon Lilly became a principal of San Francisco Ballet at the age of 23, one of America's oldest and most prestigious ballet companies. She also danced with Northern Ballet Theatre when Christopher Gable was its director and the Ballet du Rhin under Bertrand D'At. She was one of our guests at the Stage Door last May and I reported our conversation in Shannon Lilly at the Stage Door on 31 May 2020, She has now agreed to give us an online masterclass between 11:00 and 12:30 on Saturday. This is a unique opportunity for members of amateur companies like ours or adult ballet students everywhere. If you want to join us, please register here. There is no charge as the event is sponsored by NIPC Law.
  9. Terpsichore
    Just to say that our online classes with Jane Tucker proved to be a great success. Since then we have had two classes with Sophie Richardson of the Association of Russian Ballet and Theatre Arts on 7 and 14 June. Our next online class is with Beth Meadway of Ballet Cymru at 12:30 on 28 June 2020. We have quite a few extra spaces at the barre as many of our members are taking advantage of the relaxation of the social distancing restrictions. We therefore welcome adult ballet students from any part of the world for Beth's class. You can register by here. We have scheduled two more classes on 11 and 25 July and then we shall close until September. I shall post details here and on the company website.
  10. Terpsichore
    I am glad to announce that Gary Avis has accepted our invitation to be our first quest at "The Stage Door" after our summer break, His visit will take place towards the end of September. We try to interview a guest from a different company each week. So far we have interviewed guests from Ballet Cymru, Northern Ballet, the Dutch National Ballet, San Francisco Ballet, English National Ballet, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Ballet Black. This Sunday we welcome Bethany Kingsley-Garner of Scottish Ballet. I hope to have a great line up of artists to announce shortly.
  11. Terpsichore
    I am so sorry Capyybara. We had a lot of technical problems today. We would have loved to have seen you. We do have a recording though the sound quality is appalling. I shall use it as an aide memoire for the report. Despite the technical difficulties the talk went off well. A large part of the credit for the success of the day belongs to Janet who took over the interview when I was inaudible. It was great to see Damian again. He looked really well. A very jovial and entertaining guest. We hope to welcome Bethany Kingsley-Garner of Scottish Ballet next Sunday. You and every other user of the BalletcoForum website will be most welcome.
  12. Terpsichore
    Since we started "The Stage Door" on 7 May 2020 we have interviewed 6 guests. You will find links to reports of their interviews here. We are looking forward to meeting Damian Johnson and Bethany Kingsley-Garner next Sunday at 3 pm. We have promoted the following charities or good causes for our guests. Our Borealian attempt to keep up the morale of the nation's ballet goers and dancers during lockdown.
  13. Terpsichore
    I have been watching videos of La Sylphide and La Bayadere by the Astana Opera Ballet on YouTube and have been impressed. As far as one can tell from a video, their opera house seems to be an excellent auditorium. I had not been following this stream and the reason I looked up the company is that there is an outside possibility that I may one day visit Astana or Nur Sultan as I believe it is now called. It appears that the Kazakhs are trying to establish a financial services hub in Nur Sultan called the Astana International Financial Centre with its own legal system based on the common law of England. Proceedings are in English and several retired English judges sit in the court including Sir Robin Jacob who used be our senior patents judge and briefly a Lord Justice of Appeal. There appear to have been only two cases so far and one of those was decided by Sir Robin. Recently I wrote an article about the court in my other blog. Should I find myself in Nur Sultan I shall try to attend the ballet and review whatever I see for this website. In the meantime I am grateful to the contributors for their information on this topic.
  14. Terpsichore
    Good afternoon all Our guest tomorrow is Damian Johnson who danced with Ballet Black for over 10 years. I was devastated when he returned to the USA and much as I love and continue to support Ballet Black it has somehow not been the same since he left. It is therefore something of a coup to persuade him to talk to us tomorrow. If any user of this website wants to join us at 3 pm tomorrow he or she will be very welcome. The Stage Door is open to every member of the public anywhere in the world and is not restricted to Northerners. . To give users some idea of what happens here is my report of David Plumpton's visit on 7 June.. If you want to talk to Damian Johnson tomorrow, here is the link to the Eventbrite registration page.
  15. Terpsichore
    Thanks for mentioning Damian's visit Janet Principal ballerina Bethany Kingsley-Garner of Scottish Ballet will be my guest on Sunday 28 June. Do try to come if you can. Dancers like to know that we still love and remember them.
  16. Terpsichore
    We have just finished a delightful conversation with Sarah Kundi of English National Ballet. Many thanks to everyone who helped me to stage the event and also to everyone who attended. I shall post a report of the conversation on the Stage Door website shortly. Next week we welcome the distinguished accompanist David Plumpton. We shall be continuing these Zoom meetings until the London Ballet Circle and Ballet Association can hold their usual meetings. Every ballet goer is welcome to those events so long as they register in advance.
  17. Terpsichore
    I have posted my interview with Shannon Lilly to the Stage Door website, This week at 3pm we welcome Sarah Kundi of ENB. Any users of the BalletcoForum website who wish to attend will be welcome, They need only register with Eventbrite. There is no charge but we invite donations to ENB
  18. Terpsichore
    Thanks for coming. We have had three interesting guests. I have met Sarah twice: once in Manchester with DonQFan and Gita after La Sylphide and the other time at the Albert Hall when she literally stole the show as the stepmother in Wheeldon's Cinderella but I have seen many other performances but this remains one of my favourites,
  19. Terpsichore
    As some of you know we had a spot of bother with Zoom last week when we tried to interview David Plumpton. In the end I hand to abort the conversation, Our guest this week is Shannon Lilly at 15:00 today . She was a principal at the San Francisco Ballet and later danced with Northern Ballet Theatre and Le Ballet du Rhin. She was also a contestant on Britain's got Talent many years later. You should be aware that we have a backup plan in case Zoom plays up as it did last week. If I can't start the meeting by 15:05 I shall transfer it to Google Meet. To do that I must send everyone in the audience an email with joining instructions. If you have not already signed up for this talk you can do so here. Next week we welcome Sarah Kundi of English National Ballet. Sarah is one of my very favourite dancers. David Plumpton will be our guest on 7 June.
  20. Terpsichore
    Thank you so much for attending our last Zoom meeting, Janet. I am so glad you enjoyed our conversation Maria was a delightful guest. I learned a lot about the training programme at the Vaganova Academy and the contrasting cultures of the two great ballet companies with which she has worked. It is also interesting to get a dancer's perspective on choreographers. In that regard I do hope she gets a chance to dance in a Macmillan ballet, particularly Manon. Maria has approved my report of the conversation and I have posted it to the "Stage Door" website. All subsequent reports and intimations will be posted there. Our guest this Sunday at 15:00 will be the world famous pianist, David Plumpton. All regular users of and visitors to the BalletcoForum website will be welcome to hear him and ask him questions if they so wish. Similarly, while we give first dibs to Powerhouse Ballet dancers we usually have one or two places free at the virtual barre of our online company classes for guests. This Saturday our teacher will be Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet.
  21. Terpsichore
    We now have a website for the "Stage Door as well as a Facebook page and we should get a twiiter account soon,. We have two particularly interesting guests coming up this week and next. Maria Chugai of the Dutch National Ballet this Sunday at 3pm and David Plumpton the week after. I should have some more names tomorrow. Maria will also give us another class which I shall live stream on Facebook page for those who don't make the 15 places on Zoom.
  22. Terpsichore
    When I was a child I used to bounce a tennis ball against our garage door. That was to improve my tennis but I suppose it would also improve our fielding. We shall be very lucky to see any first class cricket in the British Isles this season. With any luck there may be a winter tour and cricket in the southern hemisphere, Indian subcontinent and Caribbean to which we may look forward. Nevertheless, I am missing cricket even more than I am missing ballet and am quite désolée. I wonder how Xander Parrish and Alexander Campbell feel.
  23. Terpsichore
    Thank you Janet and Alison. It was good to see you on Sunday, Janet. I am glad that we shall see you again. Alison it will be lovely to see you too whenever you can come We shall welcome Maria Chugai at 15:00 on Sunday 10 May. Her talk will be particularly interesting because she can talk about the training at one of the world's top ballet schools as well as her work at he Dutch National Ballet which is a company for which I have a very high regard. She is also a graduate student on the Vaganova's ballet masters and mistresses course and I am eager to learn what that is all about. Even though I say so myself, an interview with such an interesting guest is something of a coup for "Stage Door". I am anxious not to tread on the toes of the London Ballet Circle or the Ballet Association which has always interviewed guests. If we continue to run the service after the end of lockdown, it will be for an audience that cannot easily travel to London for their events. Like the Circle we hope to raise some funds for companies, ballet schools and other good causes which will need some help from the public for along time to come. i have worked out what went wrong with the recording and I will take steps to make sure that we do a better job next time.
  24. Terpsichore
    Normally this time of the year the cricket season would be in full swing. We may be excluded from our studios and the theatres may be dark but at least dancers can still attend classes like the ones I mentioned in "Doing Dance" or meet out favourite artists through "Stage Door" which I mentioned in another forum. But you can't bowl over Zoom or dive for a catch online. There are bowling machines but they are not cheap and require at least 22 yards of garden and probably two to operate safely. Oh for the sound of leather on willow. Long summer days by the green. Eheu fugaces labuntur anni.
  25. Terpsichore
    Like everybody else, we have been excluded from our studio by the need for social distancing. We were to have had a 7 hour workshop on the snowflakes scene at the end of the first act of "The Nutcracker" on 14 March but I had to cancel it at the last moment because I did not want to risk my dancers contracting COVID-19. As HMG had not started social distancing t the time our cancellation insurance did not cover us so I had to pay the teacher and studio out of my own pocket. It was, however, just as well that I did because one of our members fell ill the very next day with all the symptoms of the infection, As she is a very affectionate person who wants to hug all around her we might well have had a serious problem. Happily I can report that the dancer made a full and rapid recovery. Obviously we had to cancel our company classes for March and April and I wondered what would become of us at the end of the lockdown. Just over 2 weeks ago, Maria Chugai of the Dutch National Ballet offered us an online class over Zoom. Since Maria is one of my favourite dancers I jumped at the offer. She held the class on 21 April and despite my inexperience with Zoom it went pretty well, We were all thrilled. I was also quite emotional when the faces of our members appeared one by one over Zoom. It was the first time I had seen them since our last company class on 29 Feb. The success of Maria's class showed what we could do, I arranged another online class with Charlotte Ingleson of Ballet North UK in Halifax on 2 May 2020 and it was a great success. The feedback from dancers was phenomenal. Spurred on by the success of Maria and Charlotte's classes I have booked two more with Jane Tucker of Northern Ballet on 16 and 30 May at 11:00. Although I am limiting access to Zoom to 20 and giving priority to Powerhouse Ballet members if we have any spare places users of this website will be welcome to join us. Another service that we have started is "Stage Door" in which I interview a dancer, choreographer, composer or other artist to keep fans in touch with their favourites. We started with Gavin McCaig on Sunday 3 May and we will continue with Maria Chugain at 15:00 on 10 May. Again, users of this website are cordially invited,.
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