Beyoncé and the Frump: Cover-Versioning in Dance

abstract:Is copying unavoidable? Is it an inherent element of creativity? When is imitation appropriate? Justifiable? Beneficial? Welcomed? What actually gets copied? Form? Intention? Aesthetics? Concepts? What about energy? Can you copy that? What about cultural appropriation or the powerful plundering the disenfranchised? These questions all bubbled up during a creative process inspired by Krumping. To discuss these questions further, the author revisits an incident that caused a mini-furor. Beyoncé Knowles was accused of plagiarizing sections of Rosas danst Rosas, an avant-garde contemporary dance by Anna Teresa De Keersmaeker. Subsequent media discussions were filled with side-taking, indignance, and justification. But what did these two women do? What did their narrative reveal about dance, about fields of practice, about intentions, protocols, permissions, silences, acknowledgements, ethics, race relations, and feminism? The complexity of these questions creates a spinning disco ball of perspectives.