Samantha Jo “Mandy” Moore

Samantha Jo "Mandy" Moore is an Emmy-winning choreographer whose work spans television competition shows, film musicals, major awards broadcasts and concert touring. Born in St. Louis and raised in Summit County, Colorado, where she trained at Summit School of Dance, Moore moved to Los Angeles in 1994 to pursue professional dance and choreography. She has cultivated a parallel identity through her company name "Nope Not Her," a knowing response to the frequent confusion with the singer and actor of the same professional name.

Moore's breakthrough came through television. She began assisting on *So You Think You Can Dance* before moving into choreography and producing, developing a signature approach: her routines are known for emotional legibility and for shaping technically trained dancers into scene partners rather than display vehicles. She became a recurring choreographer for *Dancing with the Stars*, where her work caught industry attention for clarity and performance intention.

Her screen career expanded through films including *Silver Linings Playbook* (2012) and *La La Land* (2016). For *La La Land*, Moore designed both intimate partner passages and the freeway-scale opening number, training Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling while coordinating dancers, extras, cars and camera. Her process emphasized performance intention and storytelling over virtuosity for its own sake.

In 2017, Moore became the first choreographer credited with choreographing the Golden Globes, Academy Awards, Grammys and Emmys within one year—a milestone that reflected her authority across production scales and formats. She won competitive Emmys in 2017 for *Dancing with the Stars* routines "On Top of the World" and "Carol of the Bells," and in 2018 for *So You Think You Can Dance* routines "Brand New" and "To Make You Feel My Love." She received a juried Emmy in 2020 for choreography of *Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist*.

Her later work includes choreography and creative leadership for Taylor Swift's *Eras Tour* (2023) and repeated Academy Awards broadcasts, including a 2025 Emmy nomination for the 97th Academy Awards ceremony. That range demonstrates Moore's understanding of choreography as production design in motion: movement must serve performers, story, lens, venue and live timing simultaneously.