Thank you so much for the opportunity to speak today on behalf of the Canadian Dance Assembly.
I represent the Canadian Dance Assembly, a national service organization, and we partner with 10 provincial dance organizations to serve the dance sector, which includes hundreds of companies, schools and individual dancers across the country.
As a member of the Focus on Creators group, I am here today to add my voice to the call for fair remuneration for Canadian artists, regardless of artistic discipline. I will conclude my presentation today with two recommendations.
Copyright is a key pillar of the creative economy and an essential policy tool for the federal government. It upholds the intellectual property rights of producers and creators while allowing Canadians ready access to the content they rely on for work, entertainment and, most notably, education.
Minister Joly has stated that Canada requires a copyright framework that works well in our fast-paced digital world and provides creators with opportunities to get fair value for their work.
Choreography is mentioned once in the Copyright Act under the definitions. I'm very grateful that it is mentioned at all, to be honest. This definition of choreographic work is dated, however, and could include references to choreography for the stage, choreography for site-specific works and choreography on digital platforms, as some examples.
Notably, there have been debates in the media about the use of dance in video games such as Fortnite. Therefore, it is imperative to ensure that definitions in the Copyright Act are relevant and current. After talking with several colleagues in the dance sector, I understand that copyright of choreography and royalties for subsequent performances is dealt with at the contract level. To my knowledge, there have not been any cases brought forward to the Copyright Board about choreographic works. Unfortunately, the Canadian dance sector is not currently large enough to see multiple performances and remounts of choreography. Therefore, royalties are rarely considered.
Remarkably, there have been global discussions about whether or not you can even copyright a movement. In 2011, superstar Beyoncé was accused of borrowing liberally from Belgian choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker in Beyoncé's music videoCountdown. In The Guardian, writer Luke Jennings asserted that it would be a hard case to make for plagiarism, because works of art reference other works of art.
I am here today not to talk about royalties related to choreography, but instead, I want to talk primarily about the use of music in dance.
Dance is usually performed in venues with live or recorded music. Live music is very expensive, and I would say the majority of my members use recorded music. Large dance companies are paying royalties to composers regularly for recorded music and are very aware of their obligations, but small dance companies are often ignorant and are therefore non-compliant.
Our colleagues at Re:Sound, whom you've heard from already in this study, are aware of the administrative burden on small companies for compliance and are willing to work with dance service organizations like the Canadian Dance Assembly on webinars to educate our members. The Canadian Dance Assembly is working with its provincial colleagues and Re:Sound to increase understanding and thereby increase compliance.
In July 2017, the federal government announced its intention to reform the Copyright Board. The Canadian Dance Assembly fully supports the review and reform of the Copyright Board. The board plays an important role in ensuring creators and publishers are remunerated for the use of their work when the terms of licences cannot be reached through negotiation. Additionally, the Copyright Board has an obligation to consult sectors affected by tariffs. This consultation is what I want to talk about.
In dance, the Copyright Board administers agreements between dance schools and Re:Sound for the use of recorded music in dance instruction, which is tariff 6.B. They also administer agreements with Re:Sound for the use of recorded music at venues, which is tariff 5.K. There are also agreements with SOCAN, but I want to talk about Re:Sound today.
My colleagues at the provincial service organizations who work directly with dance studios across the country are very concerned about tariff 6.B, the “settlement tariff”. The tariff was negotiated in March 2014 between the Fitness Industry Council of Canada, GoodLife Fitness and Re:Sound.
Please note there is no dance organization among the negotiators in that list, but the tariff applies to dance instruction. The settlement tariff, certified by the Copyright Board in March 2015, is based on a per class basis, while the original tariff was based on a per venue basis. This change, combined with a significant increase in the base rate, resulted in a settlement tariff being multiple times higher for dance schools than the original tariff. For example, the studio that my four-year-old daughter studies at used to pay $25 for a venue permit under the original tariff and now, because they have 44 classes a week, it pays $1,100 in a tariff. What is frustrating about that is the fact that in those negotiations, dance organizations didn't really have a representative at the table during the Copyright Board's review.
The settlement tariff is also notably for recreational instruction not educational instruction. The majority of dance schools in this country focus their instruction on school-aged children, therefore the clarification of the definition of what is an educational institute, in comparison to what is recreational instruction, could have a significant impact on the fees paid by dance schools.
Notably, the Copyright Board supposed in March 2015 that the Fitness Industry Council of Canada could speak to dance instruction when, of course, there are several trade organizations, dance service organizations, that could speak to dance. In January 2018, when tariff 6.B was re-examined, there was one provincial dance group that was at the table briefly, from the Canadian Dance Teachers Association, but it could not afford to continue in the full proceedings.
I absolutely recognize that the actions of the Copyright Board are not the purview of this standing committee, but I bring up the lack of representation of dance here, so that it is in the public record.
On behalf of the Canadian Dance Assembly I want to encourage the committee to focus on the fair remuneration of artists in its review.
To conclude, the Canadian Dance Assembly recommends that the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology amend the Copyright Act in these two ways: one, refine the definition of choreography, so as to reflect the reality of the profession of dance in 2018, and two, re-examine the definition of educational institute to considered non-governmental training institutes such as dance schools.
Thank you very much for your consideration.