K-Pop Choreographer Kiel Tutin Responds To Accusations Of “Recycling” Choreography For aespa’s “Savage”

SM Entertainment girl group aespa recently made their comeback with the track “Savage,” As always, the group delivered on talent, visuals, and concepts that fit perfectly with their image!

Members of aespa | @aespa_official/ Twitter

Bore the music video was released, the company released a teaser for the music video, and alongside hearing a snippet of the track, fans got to see the point choreography. For aespa, they have always been known for their amazing dancing, and this was expected to be no different.

Yet, while many continued to praise the teaser and the choreography, many netizens couldn’t help but find similarities to other K-Pop dances.

Your browser does not support video.| SMTown/ YouTube 

In particular, many netizens believed that it copied choreography from BLACKPINK‘s How You Like That and ITZY‘s Not Shy. Considering how big the groups are, many thought the choreographer had taken some of the moves.

Your browser does not support video.BLACKPINK’s choreography | BLACKPINK/ YouTube

Your browser does not support video.ITZY’s choreography | JYP Entertainment/ YouTube

Yet, netizens quickly realized that rather than plagiarism, they saw it as “recycling” because the man who created aespa’s dance, Kiel Tutin, was also the person who choreographed BLACKPINK and ITZY’s songs.

After realizing what they thought had happened, many took to social media to express their opinions on the matter.

Aespa might receive so much hate after this teaser because of the similarity of dance step to HYLT, as a Blinks dont attack aespa for that, please. It was from the choreographer.

— Jewelle (@Jewelle48317831) October 3, 2021

botta count how many kpop stans putting that hylt not shy and savage choreography screenshot and wish kiel tutin to not seeing a gate of heaven

— r (@karinaoutsoId) October 3, 2021

It wasn’t long before the choreographer saw the comments, and he addressed the matter in his Instagram story. He expresses how it was only used in his original choreography version of Not Shy in the image.

He also added that he makes sure not to use anything similar when choreographing songs, but he has zero control over what goes into the final dance.

With so many artists and choreographers, he finishes by explaining that there is always going to be some overlapping in choreography due to the vastness of the industry and having to satisfy what the companies think fans want.

Unfortunately, it isn’t the first time the group has been hit with plagiarism accusations after netizens found similarities between their Savage concept photos and both British designer James Merry and Japanese illustrator Hajime Sorayama‘s photos.

Aespa’s headpieces (top) and James Merry’s headpieces (bottom).

However, netizens were quick to emphasize that this blame and criticism shouldn’t be blamed on the group, who would have not had control over many aspects of the comeback.

You can read more about it below.

SM Entertainment Raises Suspicions Of Plagiarism With aespa’s “Savage” Teaser Photos