All-Star Is Copying A Big Deal?

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Apr 14, 2017
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Asking because copying choreo being the main conflict in Bring It On was stupid to me.

I frankly don’t like to copy. It takes all the fun out of choreo. Plus it’s almost impossible to cut/paste a chunk of choreo from one team to another given all the fluctuating variables like team size and skill level that would need align if you’re going to perfectly replicate something. Which they usually don’t.

That said, although it might be tacky to copy, there’s no rule against it. And judges don’t care who came up with it first, they just care who did it best. This assumes they even realise that copying took place as they score anywhere from a dozen to a hundred teams in an afternoon.

Did that ring hollow to anyone else? I remember feeling let down when it was revealed that that was the BIG DEAL conflict in the movie. Like of all the other conflicts that actually exist in cheer — injuries, harassment, funding, etc. — they picked one that doesn’t even really exist.
 
Asking because copying choreo being the main conflict in Bring It On was stupid to me.

I frankly don’t like to copy. It takes all the fun out of choreo. Plus it’s almost impossible to cut/paste a chunk of choreo from one team to another given all the fluctuating variables like team size and skill level that would need align if you’re going to perfectly replicate something. Which they usually don’t.

That said, although it might be tacky to copy, there’s no rule against it. And judges don’t care who came up with it first, they just care who did it best. This assumes they even realise that copying took place as they score anywhere from a dozen to a hundred teams in an afternoon.

Did that ring hollow to anyone else? I remember feeling let down when it was revealed that that was the BIG DEAL conflict in the movie. Like of all the other conflicts that actually exist in cheer — injuries, harassment, funding, etc. — they picked one that doesn’t even really exist.
It's a big deal when you're paying thousands of dollars for a choreographer to create a unique routine for your team.
 
What I find funny is that due to the music rules, a lot of teams will have music that includes some of the same segments. It's kind of fun to see how different teams use the same music.

All Star choreography gets kind of boring to me after awhile because it tends to be the same skills that score high in the division repeated by every team. I love to see teams do something particularly unique. Having said that, I would find multiple teams doing the same choreography jarring, to say the least, and I can't imagine that it would score well. Which, I think was kind of the point-had they not had a bid already, that routine wouldn't have gotten them to Nationals. Which isn't what you pay a choreographer for.

And, in the case of stealing the material from the Clovers, that was outright plagiarism, with a helping of cultural appropriation on the side. Do the equivalent in a college choreography class and pass it off as original, and you will probably not only fail but be expelled from campus.
 
It's a big deal when you're paying thousands of dollars for a choreographer to create a unique routine for your team.

But remember in the movie that buying choreo was “illegal” too? Lol. This freaking film. I remember sitting in the theater and thinking, “Are we not supposed to buy choreo? Because we’ve been doing that for years.”

I don’t mean to keep harping on the film but it’s the reason for all these recent posts since as I’m rewatching it for research about this thing I’m writing. And as I do, I’m finding more and more how much it sucks. Like I always kind of knew it semi-sucked but... yikes. The timing is weird, the dialogue is cringey, and also where are the coaches?
 
What I find funny is that due to the music rules, a lot of teams will have music that includes some of the same segments. It's kind of fun to see how different teams use the same music.

All Star choreography gets kind of boring to me after awhile because it tends to be the same skills that score high in the division repeated by every team. I love to see teams do something particularly unique. Having said that, I would find multiple teams doing the same choreography jarring, to say the least, and I can't imagine that it would score well. Which, I think was kind of the point-had they not had a bid already, that routine wouldn't have gotten them to Nationals. Which isn't what you pay a choreographer for.

And, in the case of stealing the material from the Clovers, that was outright plagiarism, with a helping of cultural appropriation on the side. Do the equivalent in a college choreography class and pass it off as original, and you will probably not only fail but be expelled from campus.

This movie was not smart enough to even be aware of the "cultural appropriation" level of it all. Like it was there, but that phrase wasn't even a thing yet.

But can we just talk about the huge inconsistencies in this film and how thoughtless it was? Ok so, Big Red -- the person who is the closest thing to a coach in the movie, but who is really just a graduated student who is way too invested in her old HS cheer team -- takes the time to find East Compton HS cheer, realize they are good, and locate their pep rally schedule (at a time when none of this info was available on the internet). Then she drives two hours to the school ("Bye mom! I'm driving to Compton now! Don't worry I've got the Thomas guide!"), films their routines so she can steal them, and yet somehow avoids getting her booty kicked? Repeatedly? For five consecutive years?

l. o. l.
 
Asking because copying choreo being the main conflict in Bring It On was stupid to me.

I frankly don’t like to copy. It takes all the fun out of choreo. Plus it’s almost impossible to cut/paste a chunk of choreo from one team to another given all the fluctuating variables like team size and skill level that would need align if you’re going to perfectly replicate something. Which they usually don’t.

That said, although it might be tacky to copy, there’s no rule against it. And judges don’t care who came up with it first, they just care who did it best. This assumes they even realise that copying took place as they score anywhere from a dozen to a hundred teams in an afternoon.

Did that ring hollow to anyone else? I remember feeling let down when it was revealed that that was the BIG DEAL conflict in the movie. Like of all the other conflicts that actually exist in cheer — injuries, harassment, funding, etc. — they picked one that doesn’t even really exist.


The only thing I could think about was the year Hank gave Greenup and River Cities all girl pretty much the same routine. I don’t remember the exact year it was 2004, 2005ish time frame
 
The only thing I could think about was the year Hank gave Greenup and River Cities all girl pretty much the same routine. I don’t remember the exact year it was 2004, 2005ish time frame

WOW I just looked that up. It was 2006. Yeah, it was pretty much the same.

That said, those teams wouldn't even be competing against each other so was a crime really committed? Even an unspoken crime?

I'm not defending copying. It's tacky. But I grew up with an "it happens" attitude. My dance teacher had a gift for creating cute, different, age-appropriate routines and she got ripped of all the time. At a time when everyone was dancing to Celine Dion (for lyrical) and Will Smith (for hip hop), she had us dancing to the Blues Brothers, Paul McCartney, and Cirque du Soleil. And it got ripped off A LOT. It was frustrating, but what could we do? Run to the judges and claim that we came up with it first? They wouldn't care. They only cared who did it best. So she just made sure that even if someone ripped off her choreo, they couldn't outdo it. Which I think is the best -- and only -- way you can protect yourself from the prevalence of copycatting.
 
One should have really low expectations of accuracy in movies.

Yeah but the difference is that this one touted itself as THE cheer movie. Other movies that focused on cheer knew they were full of it and didn't bother to pretend they wanted to do anything else than film girls in skirts.
 
WOW I just looked that up. It was 2006. Yeah, it was pretty much the same.

That said, those teams wouldn't even be competing against each other so was a crime really committed? Even an unspoken crime?

I'm not defending copying. It's tacky. But I grew up with an "it happens" attitude. My dance teacher had a gift for creating cute, different, age-appropriate routines and she got ripped of all the time. At a time when everyone was dancing to Celine Dion (for lyrical) and Will Smith (for hip hop), she had us dancing to the Blues Brothers, Paul McCartney, and Cirque du Soleil. And it got ripped off A LOT. It was frustrating, but what could we do? Run to the judges and claim that we came up with it first? They wouldn't care. They only cared who did it best. So she just made sure that even if someone ripped off her choreo, they couldn't outdo it. Which I think is the best -- and only -- way you can protect yourself from the prevalence of copycatting.

No crime committed but as a coach/parents if I paid for choreography I don't want the same routine that you gave your team. You basically got paid a choreography fee twice to teach the same routine.
 
THAT'S TRUE. I didn't even think of it in a scammy kind of way.

Did this guy Hank think he wouldn't get caught since it was HS vs AS and that no one would notice? Or did he just not care? I guess he could've argued that the changes made to each team's version technically made for two different routines... but just barely.
 
THAT'S TRUE. I didn't even think of it in a scammy kind of way.

Did this guy Hank think he wouldn't get caught since it was HS vs AS and that no one would notice? Or did he just not care? I guess he could've argued that the changes made to each team's version technically made for two different routines... but just barely.


Considering he was Greenup long time choreographer and he owned River Cities, it probably wasn't a big deal since social media wasn't around then. I only notice when ESPN used to play high school nationals and all star national back to back.
 
The only thing I could think about was the year Hank gave Greenup and River Cities all girl pretty much the same routine. I don’t remember the exact year it was 2004, 2005ish time frame

Was he the choreographer that gave the same dance to UA Legacy and a highschool team one year? The one where everyone is leaned over looking like a rugby scrum and they walk to the right while one girl dances?
 
Was he the choreographer that gave the same dance to UA Legacy and a highschool team one year? The one where everyone is leaned over looking like a rugby scrum and they walk to the right while one girl dances?

I’m not sure. I don’t think I have ever saw either routine.
 
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