Rival Dance Teams Battle On The Dance Floor In Real Life ‘Bring It On’ Scandal [VIDEO]

Five high school school dance teams from Minnesota were disqualified from the state championship after protesting over a rival teams alleged plagiarized routine.

I might have to stand on the sidelines on this one when it comes to making too many comments on the ruling. I have a very special attachment to this story because I know what it's like to dance against Minnesota dance team powerhouse, Faribault High School. I danced against them for four years so I know they're a force to be reckoned with. Haters gonna hate. But I remember my senior year in high school, we took fourth and they took first, my team was devastated; especially since it was my senior year.

So you can kind of see why I take a huge interest in this story. I also know that the Steve Shannon Show has a lot of listeners who coach local dance and cheer teams in the Stateline area; I would love to get their thoughts and yours on this.

Here's the short version of the story: At state finals over the weekend, five high school teams stood hand in hand to protest an alleged plagiarized routine performed by Faribault. The claim is that they copied a performance by a Utah high school, Copper Hills High. People speculate that they got the routine from YouTube and the resemblance is strikingly similar, down to the costumes, make-up and exact music.

The Minnesota State High School League didn't seem to agree with everyone's opinion, Faribault took first place and the other five teams were disqualified for their protest.

Here are the routines side-by-side:

The major difference, which you might not fully see in the video, but Deadspin does a great job demonstrating it in one of their videos, is that Faribault is performing a high kick routine and the Azurettes are performing a drill team/character routine. That doesn't change the fact that they're very similar - same costumes, music and moves that have been placed in other parts of the program.

This is a pretty common practice in dance, maybe not to this extent, but I remember sitting in choreography meetings after school and one of the first things we did was watch videos of college dance teams performing in Orlando.  Everyone copies everyone, or uses their ideas. Unfortunately, the MSHSL doesn't have any official rules about "creative inspiration" and plagiarizing routines.

I could go on and on about this story but I won't because everyone, even on a national platform is covering it, from Cosmopolitan to The Inquisitr. All which include their cute little additions to a story that's taken on a life of it's own. Things sure have changed since I last danced in 1997, before there was Youtube.