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Charterhouse PRO and dance enthusiast, Robert Klah have raised concerns over the exclusion of dance from the Creative Arts Legislative Instrument (LI) currently before parliament.
During a thorough examination on Hitz FM on July 23, 2024, Robert Klah highlighted that both the LI and Act 1014 did not acknowledge dance as a separate sector in the creative arts field.
The papers mention different areas like music, fashion, film, visual arts, and theatre, but completely leave out dance.
“I’m looking at these, and what it says here is that the following domains in the creative arts industry… So, at this point, I’m wondering, where is dance? Where do you believe dance should fall at?” he questioned.
“In the original document itself, it’s not there. Then an extension of this is the LI, which is supposed to regulate the space… Then we have requirements. Association for the creative Industry domain, intellectual property rights and collective management organisations training. That’s it. So here again, we don’t see dance. Okay. Still, you don’t see dance,” he added.
Klah contended that by overlooking dance, it excludes the art form and its artists from receiving the same level of support and acknowledgement as other creative industries.
“I’m asking myself if these are the things you want to do for the creative industry or the following specific domains, and we are nothing part of this, then we are talking about legal marginalisation. Because remember, everything we talk about, slavery was legal before it was abolished. So once something becomes legal, it’s a serious business. It means that you can legally ignore me and I can’t say anything because I’m not captured in the system. I have no grounds. And so, it’s a big worry that that particular element is not. Hence my reaction. I’m like, no, something is not being done right now in terms of the merits of dance,” he said.
Klah highlighted the necessity of incorporating dance into the regulatory framework to guarantee it gets sufficient backing for training, market entry, and intellectual property safeguarding.
He also emphasized the increasing importance of comedy, a sector not addressed in the documents, and urged for a forward-thinking approach that includes all new and promising creative areas.
“In fact, there are other things I also don’t see the folks in the space of comedy. And it’s a growing business. And you always want to make sure that every document has to be future-oriented,” he said.
NKONKONSA.com
