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Choreographer Samantha Jo “Mandy” Moore is known by many Dancing with the Stars fans. Her work has been featured in opening numbers for the ABC competition series. But in recent seasons, the dances performed at the top of the show are choreographed by the competition series’ pros.

Naturally, many DWTS fans are curious — is Mandy Moore still working on Dancing with the Stars? Here’s what we know. 

'Dancing with the Stars' choreographer Mandy Moore with head judge Len Goodman
Mandy Moore & Len Goodman | Eric McCandless / Disney General Entertainment Content via Getty Images

Mandy Moore’s choreography career

Outside of Dancing with the Stars, Moore’s work was featured on So You Think You Can Dance Seasons 3 through 15. The 2017 Emmy Award winner and seven-time Emmy-nominee choreographer also worked on versions of the show for the United Kingdom, Canada, Ukraine, and the Netherlands. 

Moore’s choreography is also in the 2012 film Silver Linings Playbook and the 2016 movie La La Land starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Her work has also been featured in shows like: 

  • The Fresh Beat Band
  • American Idol
  • Shake It Up
  • Playing House 
  • America’s Got Talent 

‘Dancing with the Stars’ live tour featuring Mandy Moore’s choreography 

According to Moore’s IMDb, she last worked with Dancing with the Stars in 2017. But now, Moore is reuniting with her former colleagues to choreograph their performances for the 2022 live tour. 

“New year, same squad,” reads a DWTS tour Instagram caption. The collection of photos features Moore. 

Fans on Reddit are excited about Moore working with her Dancing with the Stars colleagues again. “Such a talented choreographer!” wrote one Reddit user. “Miss her work on DWTS.” 

It’s unclear why Moore doesn’t work on Dancing with the Stars anymore. But it’s likely she left to pursue other projects. In 2020, Moore began working on the NBC series Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. 

From ‘Dancing with the Stars’ to ‘Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist’ 

Today, Moore continues to work on Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist. The series follows Zoey (Jane Levy), who discovers she has the power to hear people’s thoughts through “heart songs,” which often translate into large group musical numbers. 

“Like any great musical, when you can’t say it, you sing, and when you can’t sing, you dance,” Moore told Deadline in August 2021. “I love that Zoey’s is first and foremost, a musical at its heart. So, there’s very little or very few instances where the dance is just performative because you’re using each one of these songs to propel the story forward in emotion and narrative.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAR55xi7-M0
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For Moore, working on the scripted series is vastly different from her work on Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance. “On something like So You Think, I come up with the song, the concept, the costumes, the lighting, talk about the shots, it’s very much dance-driven,” she explained to Awards Radar.

“Dancing with the Stars is obviously all about scale and epic moments and hot men and women and their sequins outfit. It’s a very different mindset than scripted because you really have a lane that you’re given when you’re given a script and it’s all about servicing the story.” 

Dancing with the Stars fans can see Moore’s choreography live while the cast is on tour. Tickets are available for dates through March 2022. 

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