“Mnet ‘Street Woman Fighter’ (hereinafter ‘Ufa’) has become popular, and some dancers are treated as stars, but they are still their own stories,” said dancer A, who asked for anonymity. “It is true that interest in dancers has grown, but the choreography and performance fees received by dancers who are not related to ‘Ufa’ have not changed.”
The career direction of dancers is largely divided into performance dancers, choreographers, trainers, educators, and planning directors. Most of the time, the occupational spectrum is gradually widening, but it is a freelance status with unstable income. The lifespan of the dancer is so short that it is not easy to work as an active player when he is in his 40s.
According to the officials, the Korean A-list dancers will receive an amount of 8 million to 10 million won from each agency and create new song choreography for singers. It is different from composers and lyricists who receive copyright fees, as well as the number of streaming and downloads on the sound source site, as well as the number of plays on the YouTube video. The number of lessons after choreography is different depending on the ability of singers to acquire and the preparation period for comeback, but it is difficult to expect additional costs accordingly. The contract does not specify specific provisions for this.
Recently, when a singer agency contracts with dancers, it is also a trend to add a clause that belongs to the company choreography copyright. It is difficult to ask the agency about the rights to copyright one by one unless they are famous dancers.
At least, in October, the Association of choreographers was created to secure the rights of dancers. The purpose of the association is to help choreographers to create their own activities in a better environment, such as dataizing choreography works and introducing standard contracts for dancers. Famous dancers who led the establishment of associations such as Ria Kim, Baek Gu-young, Choi Young-joon, and Jang Joo-hee took the board of directors, and Barunson E & A Kang Shin-bum, well-known as the investment and production company of the film Parasite, took the board of directors.
“If this is the case, it is difficult to expect the growth of the market,” said Baek Gu-young, director of the choreographer association. “In order to create diverse and rich dance contents, new guidelines on choreography copyright should be created. “We need to recognize that there was a factor in the growth of the K-pop market, which is the increase in social awareness of music copyrights and transparency in distribution of profits,” he said.