"The effort to win federal copyright protection for dance choreography in the United States was a simultaneously racialized and gendered contest. Copyright and choreography, particularly as tied with whiteness, have a refractory history. This book examines the evolution of choreographic works from being federally non-copyrightable, unless they partook of dramatic or narrative structures, to becoming a category of works potentially copyrightable under the 1976 Copyright Act. Crucial to this evolution is the development of whiteness as status property, both as an aesthetic and cultural force and a legally accepted and protected form of property. The choreographic inheritances of Loíe Fuller, George Balanchine, and Martha Graham are particularly important to map because these constitute crucial sites upon which negotiations on how to package bodies of both choreographers and dancers - as racialized, sexualized, nationalized, and classed - are staged, reflective of larger social, political, and cultural tensions. "--"This book argues that the effort to win federal copyright protection for dance choreography in the United States was a simultaneously racialized and gendered contest. Copyright and choreography, particularly as tied with whiteness, have a refractory history. Unlike Loí Fuller and Martha Graham, George Balanchine, a Russian grand his estate), succeeded in gaining and maintaining full control of his choreographic creations.

A hyperwhitened aesthetic and Balanchine's authority as a white male ballet-master--both manifestations of whiteness as status property--were crucial to that success. It also compares the cases of Josephine Baker, Katherine Dunham, Merce Cunningham and Alvin Ailey"--.