Beyoncé

BEYONCÉ — CHOREOGRAPHIC MIGRATION & MASS REPRODUCTION

COUNTDOWN — 2011

Beyoncé and director Adria Petty's Countdown incorporates material closely related to Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker's Rosas danst Rosas (1983) and Achterland (1990): movement phrases, floor work, head, hair and shoulder gestures, seated sequences, clothing, composition and framing. De Keersmaeker publicly characterised the borrowing as plagiarism; Beyoncé later acknowledged Rosas danst Rosas as a reference. ([Oxford Academic][17])

TEMPORAL ECONOMY

In Rosas danst Rosas: repetition + strict structure + duration allow fatigue, altered breath, changing energy and individuality to appear.

FORM → REPETITION → DURATION → FATIGUE → DIFFERENCE

In Countdown, rapid editing, close-up, split screen, colour and costume change, pop structure and digital distribution transform movement into fragment, citation, graphic image and reproducible sign.

MOVEMENT → CAMERA → EDITING → ICONIC IMAGE → MASS CIRCULATION

The movement changes ontological status.

AUTHORSHIP / RACE / CAPITAL

Anthea Kraut analyses more than copyright: a Black global pop star appropriates white European avant-garde choreography, reversing a longer history in which white institutions took movement from racialised communities while retaining authorial power. Tensions include race, intellectual and cultural property, authorship, cultural and economic capital and mass circulation. ([Oxford Academic][17])

AVANT-GARDE ECONOMY ↔ GLOBAL POP ECONOMY