Dancers want to copyright their moves
Street dancing has long been an informal profession taken on by inner-city youth. Using the dancehall stage as their training and promotional ground as well as performance platform, several dancers have managed to cement themselves as international celebrities in their own right.
However, videos from street dances which brought many dancers to fame, are back to haunt them, this, as foreigners have now begun to capture dancehall choreography, rebrand and redistribute them as theirs.
Since 2011, several Europe-based dance videos have been uploaded on social networks, displaying foreign dancers using Jamaican dance moves on tours and hosting dance workshops. Interestingly, the originators of the various dances are not credited, nor is the dance move regarded as dancehall.