Oh Beyoncé, you’ve caused quite a stir amongst us dance folk, have you not? I am of course referring to the earlier debate regarding Beyoncé’s new video release of Countdown and a wee bit of suspected theft. The stolen goods consist of snippets of movement which ‘once’ belonged to the beloved Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s Rosas danst Rosas (1983) and even Achterland (1990). For those of you unaware of either of these works, shame on you! Familiarise yourselves immediately with these beautiful pieces that talk of ‘girl power’ and are ‘based on assuming a feminine stance on sexual expression’ as the choreographer states in response to this outrage (see http://theperformanceclub.org/2011/10/anne-teresa-de-keersmaeker-responds-to-beyonce-video/). Or you could just catch Beyoncé’s new video on your run-of-the-mill music channel..? However, the slight problem here is that, as De Keersmaeker describes, ‘it’s seductive in an entertaining consumerist way’, and therefore rids the original piece of its light and portrays it in a different yet arguably negative one. This isn’t just copyright, this is bad copyright.

 

Contemporary dancers are commonly of a passionate nature due to their artistic, creative and expressive characters (and proud of it). The majority work hard and happily struggle along all for the love of their art, and through blood, sweat and tears, fight with all their might to inform the world of what they do and why it deserves recognition. It’s a little well known fact that contemporary dance and accessibility don’t always see eye to eye, so initially when I heard of Beyoncé’s shenanigans I admittedly rushed straight to YouTube, my thoughts reading “Great! Contemporary dance has been commercially accepted and appreciated!” But why has it needed the approval of the mainstream to then only demoralise it? And why has it taken thirty-odd years to be acknowledged? Despite enjoying Beyoncé’s admiration for a piece of contemporary dance, the horrible truth soon set in. Is this the future of contemporary dance? If it is, it’s an ugly one.

 

If this is what it takes to enable an increase in accessibility when it comes to dance, does it make it right? A thrill of this form is its creative evolution, and by using such a stunning piece of dance history in this fashion surely devalues it. From personal experience, whilst pondering how to make dance more accessible on many occasions, I witness various dance theatre works attracting non-dancers. I hazard a guess that this may be owing to a similar relation to forms such as musical theatre that are undoubtedly highly attainable to people from all walks of life. But what about abstract dance? Pure dance? Contemporary dance in general has a pesky stigma attached to it which can only be cured by shoving it into the context of a music video it seems. But why does it have to change in order to survive? By merely reaching out to a select audience, statistics, funding, and even hope decreases. I recently learnt that a tiny number of six dance companies offer full-time contracts to performers, and was utterly astonished. Foolish comments such as those spoken by David Willett are of course not helpful when promoting dance’s worth, carelessly stripping away the wonderful benefits. The question is, are Beyoncé and her team’s actions following suit, or supporting contemporary dance in a roundabout way?

 

I’m not so sure that Beyoncé has helped matters in aiding those unfamiliar with the art form to ‘get it’; the phrase ‘the right thing to do but the wrong way to go about it’ seems particularly fitting. The video has plainly presented it as a preferred vision, twisting its originality to suit the needs of those who are unaccustomed with the artistic background of not only the piece, but of dance as a whole. Those who have encountered the history behind modern, post modern, contemporary dance etc, will agree that it is far from scarce, therefore fellow situations such as the mix up between contemporary dance and commercial styles such as lyrical jazz, can be just as disheartening. Whilst we can hardly attach a Post It note bearing the words ‘this is where it actually came from’ to every music video claiming bits and pieces of contemporary dance for itself, I suppose for now, we as a community should continue to encourage and love our art form. Contemporary dance has enriched many lives, not forgetting the beautiful work it contributes to communities, education and much, much more. The evolution and development of this art form progresses in remarkable continuities, and is exciting and innovative year upon year. Even if contemporary dance is not fully appreciated by the whole wide world, it sure has created an extraordinary world of its own.