After orchestrating the highest-grossing stadium tour of all time (you’ve never heard of Taylor Swift’s Time Tour, have you?), the always-busy Mandy Moore remains as popular as ever. A few months ago, Moore took her creative vision to the neon lights of Las Vegas, redesigning part of wakeSpectacles at Wynn Las Vegas include aerial performances, acrobatics, puppetry and, of course, dancing.
The Emmy Award-winning choreographer and producer — a recent addition to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — took a moment from her busy schedule to discuss wake, How she shaped her career, and what choreographers face in 2024.
You do a lot these days. At this point in your career, how do you choose which projects to take on?
First, does this project excite me? Do I like the music or the people I work with? Is this a medium I’ve never used before? The real problem is that I’m frustrated with it all. A lot of times I just do whatever comes first because I really love what I do.
for wakefabulous [producer/director] Baz Halpin is a good friend of mine and he asked me to redo the “Earth Part” of the show. When I saw the assembled team, I immediately said yes.
What do you think of this huge show in Vegas?
I watched the show before rehearsals and saw these humans in costumes that looked like trees. I thought it would be cool to create more structures and redesign the stage so they could become the root system. I watched a lot of videos on YouTube about how trees move in the wind and studied how trees behaved in storms and sunlight so that I could visualize the shape of the trees in my mind. Then I try to create a movement language that matches that. For example, roots moving through the soil, or tree branches shaking in the sound of thunder – these analogies are really helpful. The Dancers are a team of krum dancers, locker dancers, and flexors who have great joint mobility, so it was really cool to work with them and bring the vision to life.
How do you create a unique movement vision/vocabulary for each project you work on?
A big part of my job is researching and understanding the world I’m trying to create. A lot of time and effort went into this. Is it a live performance? Is there a TV broadcast? Is this a movie? Is it in a private space? Is it vast? What are they wearing? It’s about who, what, where, when and why. I have to be able to answer these questions before creating. If I can do that, I can understand the direction we’re taking, and the final product will be unique and the best.
As an active member of the Choreographers Guild, what are your thoughts on the dance company’s progress so far? What is the most pressing issue that even a well-known choreographer like yourself faces in the entertainment industry?
There have been some significant advances in visibility. With that comes the ability to hold larger meetings. We can go to the Screen Actors Guild, the media, or the studios and say, “Hey, this problem is happening in our community—are you willing to talk about it?” But we still need a lot of safeguards—health, pensions, residual funds. . Now that we are united, we are at the beginning of the climb.
