Can you own copyrights to dance moves or choreography?

Question

So there's this thing called High Fitness. It's a company that makes money off of choreographing exercise routines to popular music, and sells the choreography. It's essentially Zumba but less dancey and more of a workout. The company offer$ training in order to "certify" people as "certified" high fitness instructors who have to pay monthly to subscribe to the library of choreography, which they use to lead classes they charge admission to attend.

The question is, if someone were to attend a class, learn the choreography, and then share it outside of the class, are there any concerns about copyright? Could anyone get in trouble for working out or leading workouts using the choreography they learned at a high fitness class?

Answer 1

If someone were to attend a class, learn the choreography, and then share it outside of the class, are there any concerns about copyright?

Yes.

Copyright law in most countries covers many types of "creative works", not just texts, music and video. In Canada this is codified in the Copyright Act, which says

5 (1) Subject to this Act, copyright shall subsist in Canada, for the term hereinafter mentioned, in every original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic work if any one of the following conditions is met: [...]

Copyright Act, Part I, 5 - Works in which Copyright may Subsist

It is generally accepted that dance choreography falls under the category of "dramatic work" or "artistic work" mentioned above.

Another, more complex question is who actually owns the copyright to the choerography. But whoever that is may well successfully sue you if you share the choreography without permisson.

The chapter on copyright from the "Professional Standards for Dance" by the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists gives a more detailed overview of the situation.