Did anyone else notice this? On DWTS over in America, there was a gymnast who competed last year called Nastia Liukin who danced a phenomenal Argentine Tango (in Week 4 as well!) with choreography that was remarkably similar to Claudia's Argentine Tango. It's not exactly the same of course, but there's a lot of near-identical moments between the two throughout...

Claudia & AJ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvJzIFoGBVg

Nastia & Derek: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DLY3zt6AR8

Anyone know whether AJ sneakily stole some of the choreography and hoped nobody would notice, or whether the AT choreographers just got a bit lazy?

AJ did not do the choreography for that dance, as he said on ITT he has never done an AT before himself so was looking forward to learning one

Oops OP made a clanger.

Thanks for confirming.

So did whoever choreographed the AT just decide to lift quite a bit of the routine from that then or was it the same choreographer perhaps? I loved both routines immensely but I've literally never seen such blatant similarities between two routines before is all I'm saying.

Would love to know who the judges were and what scores Nastia & Derek were awarded.

LOL, ok then.

Yes, they are very similar. I think you have a point.

However, neither one is an AT by any stretch of the imagination, but whatever...

If they entertain people and the audience want to call it an AT, there's no law against a parody.

Just a bit of fun.

Natalie pinched some of Vincent and Flavia's AT steps for her one with Ricky Whittle. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

Found………
Nastia & Derek: Scores: 9,8,9,10 total 36. "Variations on Dark Eyes"—Lara St. John

Host and judges
Tom Bergeron returns as host alongside Erin Andrews.

Len Goodman, Carrie Ann Inaba, Julianne Hough, and Bruno Tonioli return as judges.

most of AT lifts are very similar anyway...

The choreography was done by Myriam Ojeda (the BBC typo'd her name in the closing credits). Her credentials are here.

That is mostly true of 'performance tango' (as opposed to social AT) except when you get to Mundial Escenario level where they create their own.

Great at Latin, but not a specialist in AT - not that it matters a jot. She's very much a 'performance' choreographer. Right for this task and showed Claudia's strengths rather than an AT which simply would not suit her and AJ at all.

Given that for each dance there is a specific set of steps that constitute the basics in the dance (and the more complex figures too for that matter), I'm not sure why anyone would find it surprising that routines end up being similar

I don't think they did, they just threw the possibility out for discussion, rather than saying it was definitely copied.

I thought it had some highlights of an AT that Vincent and Flavia performed on Saturday Night Takeaway either this year or last. It made me have an inkling Flavia was involved somewhere though the credentials say not so I don't know. I haven't seen the one from Nastia and Derek though I can see the OP's thinking with her being a gymnast also though it may be the execution of it which is similar and not the dance itself

Oh dear the "stolen choreography" thread again.
Do you know that some dance moves are the same in a specific dance?

This is not the case in AT where there are 100s and all are improvised with no sequences. Well, supposedly because, in fact, you rarely see any real AT steps in the routines on Strictly. You cannot compare it to ballroom at all.

In fact if I ever do see any real AT moves I am shocked and impressed.

Apart from one lift movement I saw no AT in AJ's routine last night - not even a tango walk.

I'd not seen the American one but so what?
Claudia and AJ were amazing last night.

They certainly were........and undermarked imo

You can see Bruno in the background

Definitely undermarked. You have to love the judge's unsubtle attempts in justifying not giving the 10 though ... "you're on the right track, do this more" was the overwhelming topic of comment on Claudia last night

I think she was undermarked. I watched a couple of seconds of Louise's dance and went to make coffee. Whereas rewatched Claudia's AT twice.

I've not watched any of Louise's dances back. I've watched Claudia's twice, her Charleston a number of times, Ed's Cha Cha and Salsa countless times and Ore's Jive a few. I love Judge Rinder and have watched his ChaCha, AS and Salsa several times and found what the judges said to him last night extra cutting considering the high praise and overmarking that had gone on beforehand with one or potentially two of those couples ahead of him

That being said - another justification of the judges marking her a 9 and not a 10 "well she was infinitely better than the two that were on directly before her and gave her marks to reflect this so what do you want?"

Hello? A 10 would be nice ... and deserved!