Steal This Dance

Each move for sale in our Moves Boutique has a suggested retail value, determined by the person or people who made it. You can also purchase the moves on a “pay what you can” basis. Please let us know why you paid what you did. Your purchase will help us raise awareness and provoke discussion about the value of dance, dancers and choreography. It will also help us raise funds for our live stage show Punk Yankees, set to premiere in October 2009 at the Dance Center of Columbia College.

Of course you can also steal the moves, but that is between you and your karma. If you decide to go this route – for financial reasons or other – we encourage you to respectfully acknowledge the choreographers and join the conversation on this site (please reference “Suggestions For Stealing Dance Respectfully” below). You can also do your own research on one or any of the following key words: appropriation, fair use, citation, homage, re-mix, in the style of, lineage, dance education, memory sampling, mash-ups, transformation, impersonation, identity theft, and citation.

Purchased moves are transferable for personal use, including but not limited to: educational purposes (dance classes and the like), your “own” choreographic works (excluding competitions or convention showcases where cash prizes may exceed $2,000), shared encounters at parties, weddings, bar mitzvahs, bars, etc. (we strongly encourage adapting your moves for a social or line dance), and any type of private encounter that doesn’t involve the exchange of money. If you would like to use your purchased move in a contest, competition, or convention where cash prizes exceed $2,000, your winnings may be subject to royalties, calculated as a fraction of your total winnings by determining the percentage of duration of your purchased move relative to the duration of the entire dance.

Purchased moves are strictly nontransferable for commercial use.

Return Policy

All sales are final. If the moves don’t fit you purposes, they cannot be returned, but may be exchanged for moves of equal or lesser value. Be sure to check the sale bin for discounted moves. Discounts are often based on a minor flaws such as various body parts not being visible in the video, or an insignificant stumble here or there. Please keep records of your exchange in your personal files as we do not want to incur additional administrative expense for facilitating the exchange.

We will most likely forgo aggressive artistic reprisal if you a) exchange for a move of greater value; b) end up using the original purchased move (having already used exchanged moves) after adequate training allows proper execution; or c) you appropriate the move to fit personal idiosyncrasies that may limit adequate execution, in which case we hope you will credit it as a “derivative” move, or that you will not credit it at all. If you are not sure as to whether or not you are successfully executing your move (in the likeness of the original), ask for help from someone who has a good eye for these things. If it is determined that you aren’t even close, please don’t credit the original chorographer. Just call it your own move until you are able to properly execute.

Give Back

We want you to show us how you are using your moves! For more information, visit the SHARE portion of this website.

Suggestions For Stealing Dance Respectfully

• Credit the choreographer whenever and wherever possible. A suggested program note is: “this work includes movement samples derived from – and therefore not an exact replication of – choreography created by (Name/s), as learned from StealThisDance.com.
• Show the source material while you are doing the moves (projected, on a computer screen, etc).
• Stream a “choreo-bibliography” with your dance.
• Hire an actor to talk about the origins of the moves while you are dancing, or practice talking and dancing at the same time so you can do this yourself.