“Actual Hot Mess” — aespa’s Main Dancer Karina Takes Heat Over Dancing Skills In Viral Clip

The group have been targeted with criticism recently.

aespa is currently active, and while the comeback has garnered great success, it has also come with scrutiny and criticism, even of past performances.

aespa | SM Entertainment

Recent tracks “Rich Man” and “Dirty Work ” have been criticized for their choreography, even by some who enjoy the songs. They have claimed that the choreography makes the members “look bad” and is challenging to perform.

aespa Receive Scathing Reviews For “Mess” Performance On “Good Morning America”

As more performances have been targeted with criticisms, some have turned their criticism towards to group and questioned their skills, specifically Karina in this case.

aespa’s Karina

A clip of aespa performing at SMTOWN in Jakarta in 2023 was reposted online, showing Karina’s part a special dance break during the performance.

????? pic.twitter.com/I0PlI6NFcX

— Roséannechae¹ is DIFFERENT ✷ˎ-ˊ (@chaewonzpet) September 20, 2025

While the clip is older, many have criticized Karina’s skills, implying they have not improved and even giving possible reasons for what they consider “lackluster” dancing. One of Karina’s positions in the group is Main Dancer, which likely only has increased scrutiny.

they are so fucking bad im crying https://t.co/umaZ9nG8wh pic.twitter.com/5Tsoqn1V5l

— catalina (@crrimed) September 20, 2025

sm mediaplay is insane because they really managed to gaslight the entire kpop world that this girl was an ace??😭 https://t.co/MQMOafXX3e

— 𝖆𝖑𝖑𝖚𝖗𝖊 (@jenslure) September 20, 2025

The problem with Aespa is that whenever they do their dance routines- they never fully complete a dance step before doing the next one and so it looks incomplete, rushed, unpolished and messy and that’s what Karina is doing here (she does it a lot btw)- I said what I said https://t.co/3FQ4XGrgtK

— 𝓪𝓹𝓲𝓷𝓴𝓹𝓸𝓹 (@_pinkssi) September 20, 2025