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Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, but Copper Hills High School's Azurettes drill team probably would have passed on this compliment.
A Minnesota high school dance team is at the center of a "plagiarism" controversy after performing a championship routine Saturday night that bears an uncanny resemblance to the Azurettes' award-winning dance moves from a year ago.
Shannon Mortensen, head coach of the Azurettes, said she recognized her choreography in the Emeralds' performance.
"It's not like they took just a really cool trick," Mortensen said. "They took the whole concept — the music, the characters and the choreography."
Both teams start with the dubstep song "Alien," by Figure. Both wear full-body unitards in shades of black and green with hanging fringe on the arms. The first 30 seconds of both squads' routines have been posted side by side on YouTube to show the similarities between the jerky, hip-hop choreography.
The Minnesota scandal has been brewing for a week.
Last weekend, the Faribault Emeralds won the Minnesota state Class 3A High Kick championship with the "Alien" routine. But their moment in the spotlight was spoiled when the remaining five squads in competition protested the team's win, according to media reports.
The other teams did not receive their awards after refusing to take their places on the Target Center's gym floor, instead standing in solidarity across the expanse of wood from the Emeralds.
Before Saturday's championship, the Minnesota State High School League investigated claims that the Emeralds had stolen their routine from the Azurettes, but determined that no rules were violated and notified all the teams the show would go on.
Copper Hills' Mortensen said it's all too common for dance teams to lift from one another. But she added that the Emeralds appear to have gone a step further by re-creating major elements of the Utah school's routine.
Besides the music and costuming, she said, the Emeralds' routine includes roughly 80 beats that are identical to the Copper Hills routine. Those movements, she said, are scattered among original choreography.
"They do have a lot of stuff in there that we didn't do," she said. "But they have a lot in there that's taken right from [our] YouTube video."
After the initial 30 seconds, the Emeralds' choreography transitions into a series of precision high-kick sequences. Copper Hills' "character" routine is more informal.
Faribault Dance Coach Lois Krinke told Minnesota's KARE 11 that she had copied the Copper Hills' concept, but denied accusations of plagiarism.
"If any amount of time was similar, it was four seconds here and there and never consecutively," Krinke said. "We had performed this dance in competition three times prior to, and nobody said a thing. We get to sections and win, and then all this happened."
Mortensen said she doesn't expect anything to come out of the controversy. But she hopes people realize how prevalent theft is among dancing teams.
She compared the copied routine to stealing $5 out of someone's wallet. They may not have stolen everything, she said, but it was still stealing.
"Awareness would really help," she said, "just people knowing there is a problem."
In the end, Copper Hills' routine may have more lasting power. On YouTube Monday afternoon, the Utah team's routine had been watched more than 20,000 times; the Minnesota team's just over 2,000 times.