Outspoken dancer/choreographer Paule Turner, a.k.a. Duchess, was scheduled to take his first step into the legal arena yesterday, at a Small Claims Court hearing pitting Turner against The Wilma Theater. Turner was a participant in January 2002's DanceBoom! festival at the Wilma, a local dance showcase currently in its second year. He is suing the theater in connection with an advertising campaign for its 2002-03 season, which illustrated the listing for the 2003 DanceBoom! (of which Turner is not a part) with a photo of Turner from a 1999 show, In the Mud. Turner complains that he was never asked permission for the photo to be used, and he was not credited for the image in the 20,000-plus brochures that were mailed out or on a large banner hanging from the Wilma (and rarely credited in numerous bus-shelter posters). Turner was also never compensated for the use of his image.

It is common practice for theater companies to use images from their previous seasons to advertise the upcoming one, and actors in these photos are rarely credited. Turner argues that it was the use of the shot from In the Mud that angered him. "If this was a picture from Medea [Love is the Devil, Turner's 2002 DanceBoom! performance], then I would say ŒOh, OK, I understand, it was on their stage, it was their photographer, blah blah blah. But [In the Mud] was never on their stage."

Turner says he discovered the image in June 2002, when he found a Wilma 2002-03 season brochure lying in a pile of mail at the front of his apartment building. He claims he immediately called the Wilma and spoke with marketing director Liz Walsh, who apologized to Turner. "I accepted her apology," Turner says, "but I was still interested in speaking to the Wilma; mainly, actually, I wanted to speak artist-to-artist with Blanka and Jiri [Zizka, Wilma artistic directors], but I've never spoken to [them] about this."

Turner says the Wilma offered him what he calls "shut-up money." "The offer to me was so ridiculous, it was insulting," he says.

Turner then sought the help of Christina D. Frangiosa, an attorney at the firm of Montgomery, McCracken, Walker & Rhoads. In October, Frangiosa sent a letter to the Wilma demanding the removal of Turner's image from any further DanceBoom! promotions; the mailing of a letter of correction to recipients of the original brochures; and $5,000 for Turner. When the Wilma did not accept these terms, Turner scheduled his hearing date. Turner planned to represent himself at the hearing rather than continuing with Frangiosa as his counsel, due mainly, he says, to financial concerns.

Legally, Turner is accusing the Wilma of false advertising (claiming his image implies he is involved somehow in the Wilma's season). He's also arguing that, as Frangiosa writes in her letter to the Wilma, the "use of Mr. Turner's image and likeness without his authorization and/or without attribution constitutes a misappropriation of his likeness and an invasion of his privacy, both of which are actionable under Pennsylvania law." Turner says that he sees this as an infringement of his rights, plain and simple. "If I'm going to be the logo for DanceBoom! and on the cover [of the brochure], that's huge, that's me representing a dance festival at a very important theater, without my name being properly credited and without my permission." Turner adds that the image itself, of his back and another dancer's, "has been used everywhere [to promote In the Mud], it's so important and I feel like it's supposed to sell me, and now I feel like this whole year it is being used to sell the Wilma."

Turner has often loudly taken up causes in the dance community, be it through angry letters to the local press or admonishments of the city's major funders of dance, including the Pew Charitable Trusts-funded Dance Advance program (which gave money to both this year's and last year's DanceBoom! festivals and which Turner calls "infamous" in his letter to the press detailing his case against the Wilma). Asked if he fears at all that his outspokenness could work against him in this case, Turner replies, "It's true, people do kind of [say] "What's he upset about now?' but at the same time I feel like it's an important job to be the one who questions, I think more artists should." Turner says that in his most recent meeting with Pew, he told the funders that "I'm all about constantly yelling out "fuck the establishment,' but I want the establishment to support me while I say it."

Turner adds that he is not afraid of burning bridges with the Wilma, now emerging as a potentially powerful ally to the Philadelphia dance community, or of hurting his chances to receive support from local funders. "Fuck relationships," Turner says. "If you don't pay the rent, I don't give a shit about ya and if [that] burns a bridge, me taking care of myself, then fine, there really was no bridge, there was just you waving across this big open space telling me you were my partner. That's not a bridge."

The Wilma sees this situation quite differently. Wilma staffers were urged by their law firm, Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, not to go into too much detail about the case until the hearing is concluded, but Artistic Director Jiri Zizka was able to give a brief version of events. "It is our policy regarding [such] photos," he says, "that every participating dancer or dance company signs a release, and we made a mistake in this case. It got overlooked by our marketing department. We have acknowledged the mistake and apologized to [Turner], our marketing director apologized to him numerous times and she also pulled this particular photo from any publicity that was not yet printed. And that somehow wasn't good enough, so we have made a financial offer, and wanted to compensate the dancer and the photographer with what we consider market value." Zizka says the $5,000 Turner is requesting is about "10 times" what the Wilma considers market value for using an image.

"We're a nonprofit organization," Zizka adds. "We don't have $5,000 just lying around. And of course he's got the right to request whatever he likes, that's not the issue. I'm not putting a price on the value of his work or his photographer's work."

As for Turner's claim that he was denied an "artist-to-artist" meeting with Zizka, Zizka says, "I've never received a letter from him personally asking for an artist-to-artist, face-to-face meeting."

Zizka sees this as "kind of a simple thing that has become a big thing. We've done this for the past 25 years and never had a problem, but it was a mistake and we apologized for it and tried to correct it. Obviously it's not enough."

Zizka hopes this situation will not negatively affect the work that the Wilma has done with DanceBoom! "We are all interested in a better future for dance companies in the city, that's why we started DanceBoom! in the first place. We are promoting a program that [Turner] could be part of in the future."