The polonaise from the film Pan Tadeusz directed by Andrzej Wajda as a choreographic work protected by copyright

Choreographic work was the object of copyright protection under the Berne Convention, as revised at Berlin in 1908, as well as under the historical Polish copyright legislations — the 1926 Act (as an original, “not based on any existing work of art” work of “rhythmic art (choreography)”) and the 1952 Act (as a “work of choreographic art” preserved in “scenarios, drawings or photographs”). It was also included, as a “choreographic work”, in the exemplary catalogue of works protected under the Act of 4 February 1994 on Copyright and Related Rights (“the Copyright Act”), currently in force. The purpose of this paper, due to limited framework, is to analyse some basic concepts related to the conditions that a movement composition shall meet in order to qualify as a choreographic work in the meaning of the Copyright Act. It is shown based on the polonaise from the film Pan Tadeusz, directed by Andrzej Wajda. This choice allows to introduce threads related to folklore as well as the use of unprotected pieces of the public domain in choreographies into the discussion. Moreover, the article briefly presents the correlation between choreographic work and other intellectual works — literary, musical, and audiovisual.