Long before I was an aspiring attorney, I was a ballet dancer. My childhood was spent in a dance studio—working, sweating, dreaming, learning, and, eventually, choreographing. My falls and springs were spent in my home studio while my summers were spent at ballet intensives—ten week long programs where young dancers go to learn from the best and dance eight hours per day. We took regular dance classes as well as partnering classes and variations classes. Variations are classical ballet solos that have been passed down through generations of ballet dancers and, while intricacies may vary (hence, “variation”) from performance to performance depending on a specific dancer’s strengths, there are always parts that stay the same; it is classical ballet after all. Every ballet dancer worth their rosin will recognize Odile’s developés in Swan Lake, the unique upper body choreography in Nikiya’s variation from La Bayadere, and the tambourine kicks from La Esmeralda. While I never competed in national or global classical ballet competitions, I remember watching videos of dancers my age performing the same variations on the iconic Youth America Grand Prix and Prix de Lausanne stages. Once my dancing days were over and I moved on to training my brain more than my feet, I began studying copyright law.  I remember being taken aback during a lecture when my professor first said that choreographic works are protected under US Copyright Law.  How could this be?  It is custom within the ballet world for choreography to be spread around from one group of dancers to another.  Generally, unless explicitly told otherwise, once you are taught a piece you may teach it to others.  Had dancers been breaking copyright law?  Could I and every teacher at those intensives be sued for copyright infringement? … More Fair Use in the World of Ballet Competitions