The 1976 Copyright Act included choreography and pantomime to the list of copyrightable subject matter. In 2018, TikTok surpassed Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube’s downloads and launched the viral dance phenomenon. The panel will discuss the requirements to copyright dance and how the topic of protection and credits for choreographers has come to the forefront of the conversation with the expansion of TikTok. 

“This online panel is approved for 1.5 transitional/non-transitional New York State CLE credits in the category “Areas of Professional Practice.” To receive CLE credits for the panel, you must attend the program “live.” We cannot award CLE credits for watching a recorded version of any part of this program.”

Panelists:

Marc D. Ostrow is a Senior Counsel at Romano Law PLLC, focusing on copyright and entertainment law, with an on the music business. He represents composers, songwriters, recording artists, labels, music publishers as well other creators and licensors of intellectual property. From 2010-2016 he served as Adjunct Professor at Westminster College of the Arts of Rider University where he taught courses on the music business. Ostrow is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Chicago Law School. He has served on the board of the New York Chapter of the Association of Independent Music Publishers, as a Trustee of the Copyright Society of the USA and as a publisher member of the ASCAP Symphonic and Concert Music Committee. Ostrow frequently speaks at various industry forums and educational institutions and writes frequently on music and copyright issues. He has been recognized by his peers as a 2022 New York Super Lawyer for entertainment and sports law and has achieved the highest peer rating, AV Preeminent, with Martindale-Hubbell. Ostrow is also a performing songwriter and composer. 

Elena Paul is the director of legal and business affairs for Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, a premiere modern dance company based in New York.  Prior to joining Alvin Ailey, she was the executive director for Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts where she represented clients on a pro bono basis, acting as general counsel and a legal advisor to arts and cultural organizations and individuals artists.  Previously, she was the executive director of the Washington Area Lawyers for the Arts.  Elena has been intricately involved in many arts related organizations.  She serves on the board of the Sculpture Center, a nonprofit arts institution.  She is also an adjunct professor in the Producing and Documentary Programs at the New York Film Academy.

Michele Byrd-McPhee is the founder and Executive Director of Ladies of Hip-Hop, a non-profit organization empowering girls and women through Hip-Hop culture and arts. Michele has been working for decades to re-contextualize spaces and conversations about Hip-Hop culture along gender, sex, cultural, socio-historical and racial lines. As well as, situating Black dance forms, theories, dance techniques and the value of the lived artistic experience, in spaces that honor and acknowledge cultural roots along with the many creative pioneers who have shaped them. This is especially important given the ways in which Black dance has been co-opted, appropriated without acknowledgement to its community cultural origins. Byrd-McPhee earned her BS from Temple University & an MS in Nonprofit Arts Management from Drexel University.  Michele also worked  many years in TV and arts production, working as a production coordinator at Brooklyn Academy of Music and then as a Senior Music Coordinator at Late Night with Seth Meyers. Michele currently is teaching Marketing for the Arts and Arts Advocacy at Texas Tech University. She also serves as a Bessie Award Committee Member along with her ongoing commitment as Executive Director for Ladies of Hip-Hop and artistic director of LDC (LOHH Dance Collective).