Did aespa’s “Savage” Choreography Recycle BLACKPINK & ITZY’s Dance Moves?

Yesterday (Tuesday, 5th October), rising K-pop girl group aespa (에스파) finally made their comeback with their first EP “Savage”, along with the title track of the same name. Prior to the release of the full MV, the group’s agency SM Entertainment dropped a teaser for the video earlier on 3rd October.

In the teaser, fans were treated to a snippet of the song’s melody. Not only that, the point move of the choreography was revealed. While many were extremely impressed with the dance move, a few hawk-eyed fans out there couldn’t help but notice the similarities to other K-Pop dances.

In particular, a lot of fans felt that the choreography was imitating the dance moves from BLACKPINK’s How You Like That” and “Not Shy” by ITZY. With the fact that the two aforementioned songs were from girl groups under a major music label (specifically YG Entertainment and JYP Entertainment) and were both smash hits, people were quick to call the choreographer out for apparently “plagiarising” the dance moves.

Netizens soon learnt that the choreographer of “How You Like That”, “Not Shy”, and “Savage” turn out to be the same person — Kiel Tutin. Following the discovery, people began accusing him of reusing (in other words, “recycling”) the same dance moves for different artistes. Many took to social media to express their dividing opinions on the matter after realising what they thought had happened.

Instead of staying mum, the male dancer immediately issued a statement on his Instagram Story in hopes to clear the air on the accusation. As revealed by Tutin himself, the choreography in question was only used in “Not Shy” and not “How You Like That”, and the proof can be found in his choreography progress clip posted on his YouTube.

Tutin further clarified that he makes sure not to use anything similar when coming up with a dance routine for a song. Though, he stated that he has “zero control” of what ends up in the final choreography. The male choreographer concluded by saying, “Dance has a finite amount of movements. And when satisfying the K-pop machine, there will be moves that overlap.

To quote him in the post, “Find a new angle, or get a life!” We are absolutely loving his sassy response here!