Who owns your story if you share it? How much is it worth? Timed with the revival of A Chorus Line, the New York Times revisits the story behind stories of the dancers who may have signed away their life stories for a song.

In 1974, choreographer Michael Bennett summoned 19 of Broadway’s best dancers, had them to sit in a circle on the floor of an exercise center, pressed record on a tape, and asked them for their life stories. “For the next 12 hours they spoke about their lives,” writes Campbell Robertson, “telling stories of divorce, child abuse and the plight of the professional dancer.” We know how this story ends. The dancers sold the rights to all that they spilled on the tape for $1 each. And these stories became the blueprint of one of the most successful musicals of all time. Bennett later set them up with royalties from the show (reportedly up to $10,000 a year) but these storytellers have long questioned whether they’ve received short shrift (at best) or completed ripped off (at worst). “I knew it was wrong,” Priscilla Lopez told the Times reporter, “But I thought, ‘If I don’t sign this, I’m not going to be a part of it.’ ” Read this terrific piece here.

Photo courtesy of Logan Cody > Flickr > Creative Commons.