Vata of 'Street Man Fighter' accused of plagiarizing choreography

K-pop

Published: 11 Oct. 2022, 14:19 Updated: 11 Oct. 2022, 17:55

Vata of 'Street Man Fighter' accused of plagiarizing choreography

Dancer Vata of dance crew We Dem Boyz performing ″New Thing″ on ″Street Man Fighter″ [SCREEN CAPTURE]

Vata, a dancer competing on the ongoing survival program "Street Man Fighter," is being accused of plagiarizing the choreography that he allegedly created for song "New Thing."

Los Angeles-based choreographer Anze Skrube posted on his Instagram story on Monday night a series of re-posts and videos that claim Vata copied his choreography for K-pop boy band Ateez's "Say My Name" released in 2019.

"A choreographer from Korean competition show "Street Man Fighter," has copied the infamous traveling move for Ateez's "Say My Name" choreo — this choreographer's name is Vata," reads one of Skrube's re-posts on his Instagram account.

The "traveling move" in the aforementioned quote refers to the very beginning of Vata's "New Thing" dance where dancers move as if they are riding a motorcycle.

Skrube also re-posted a story that asked Vata to apologize to Skrube and Ateez.

The claim against Vata is being further supported by the fact that Ateez member Wooyoung made the "biting move" — an act of clicking one's arms and and elbows together when someone copies another dancer's dance sequence — while performing during the dance break of "Say My Name" at a concert in Daegu on Sunday.

Skrube posted stories about the meaning behind this move and video clips showing Wooyoung performing it at the Daegu concert as well.

Skrube made his own statement through a video on his Instagram story Tuesday.

"There is a difference between being inspired by a move and taking a whole sequence of moves," he said. "And this is what happened in this case. This particular sequence was choreographed by Josh Smith at the end of 2018 and came out at the beginning of 2019.

"I'm only saying this because stuff like this happens a lot in the dance industry and that's not okay [...] If you get inspired by something, the least you can do is credit the creators."

At the beginning of the video, Skrube also mentioned that he is "here for positivity" and advised against those who were "harassing each other and fighting [about the recent allegations against Vata]."

Vata has not made any statement regarding the claims.

“New Thing” is a song produced by singer-songwriter and rapper Zico. It has ranked No. 1 on Melon Chart for more than two weeks. It has also sparked the “saebbing” challenge, named after its Korean title, which saw a wave of K-pop idols upload dance cover videos of the song.

Vata is the leader of the dance crew We Dem Boyz. The crew is among seven groups still in the competition.

“Street Man Fighter” airs on cable channel Mnet every Tuesday at 10:20 p.m.

Above: Vata is dancing to what is allegedly his choreography of the song ″New Thing″ during an episode of ″Street Man Fighter″ Below: Anze Skrube's dance crew dancing to Skrube's choreography of boy band Ateez's song "Say My Name" (2019) [SCREEN CAPTURE]

BY LEE JIAN [lee.jian@joongang.co.kr]