ABSTRACT
This article assesses the growing use of choreographic trusts to secure proper management of a choreographer’s dance legacy, focusing on the legal status of those of George Balanchine, Frederick Ashton, Jerome Robbins, and Merce Cunningham, with consideration also given to Martha Graham’s will. Such trusts are ideally suited to controlling the licensing and restaging of dance works and to sustaining long-term preservation programs. The nature of trusts and issues relevant to dance copyright and preservation are reviewed.
