Should Your Copy Your Favourite Dancers And Choreographers?

Everyone in all walks of life has their idols. Whether that idol is runner Usain Bolt, driver Michael Jackson or civil rights activist Rosa Parks. Dancers too have their idols.

Whether it's choreographers like Lavelle Smith or dancers such as Michael Jackson or Shabbadoo. Should a dancer try and copy their idols though?

A dancer should by all means try and learn to dance like their idols and even learn their dance routines if it's what inspires them. What they shouldn't do though is copy whole sections of their choreography or routines and pass them off as their own without the choreographer getting credit. If you're a real fan of course you're unlikely to do this.

If you decide to learn a routine like Michael Jackson's Thriller, a careful observer will probably catch on sooner or later given how famous the video is. If you then proceed to perform that routine at a dance show then of course people will know what you've done and will kind of go along with you.

The problem lies when your idols are not as well known or even famous. If you don't give full credit where it's due and your idol is largely an underground dancer or not world-known, then you may run into a few accusations of plagiarism.

Also as you go along, you'll probably want to develop your own style as a dancer instead of being a clone of another dancer. You can of course base it on your favourite dancers, even have many of their dance moves but you want to have some of you there as well.

There's nothing unusual about taking dance moves from your favourite dancers and incorporating them into your dancing and your routines. They would probably be flattered. It's only when taking and copying entire sections of choreography do issues arise.

Every dance style has certain dance moves within the dance style that are used time and time again by dancers. It's the way a dancer styles those moves, or a choreographer performs and combines moves that gives them their unique style as opposed to a clone of other dancers.

As long as you know the simple rules about plagiarism then it's fine to copy other dancers. In fact dancers and choreographers hold dance classes, workshops and master classes so that other dancers can learn to dance like them or do routines the way they do.

If they don't do dance workshops and master classes you probably have to watch them closely when they dance, or any videos they have to figure it out. You'll probably find other dancers who are fans of them as well who may be able to help you out.

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