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Mandy Moore reveals inside the making of Taylor Swift's top-secret new music video


The DWTS and Eras Tour choreographer opened up about working on Taylor Swift's latest music video for "The Fate of Ophelia"


Taylor Swift at The 67th Annual Grammy Awards, airing live from Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California, Sunday, Feb. 2© Getty Images
Hannah Yasharoff
Hannah YasharoffNews & Features Writer
October 9, 2025
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Mandy Moore — no, not that one — has choreographed everything from La La Land to Dancing with the Stars numbers to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. Now, she's reflecting on what it was like to choreograph Taylor's latest project: the official music video for "The Fate of Ophelia" off her latest studio album, The Life of a Showgirl

Appearing on Thursday's episode of the Dancing with the Stars Official Podcast, Mandy said the experience of working with Taylor, especially on this video, has been "insane" in the best way. 

Dancer/competition judge Carrie Ann Inaba and choreographer Mandy Moore attend "Dancing with the Stars" Season 24 at CBS Televison City on May 1, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. © Getty Images
Dancing with the Stars judge Carrie Ann Inaba and choreographer Mandy Moore pose together at a 2017 DWTS event

"I've been in Taylor Swift's orbit now for a couple years, and it is a wild, amazing, incredible, magical ride," she said. "She is everything you want her to be. I just think she's the real deal and I feel so lucky when I get to create with her, because we just get each other. It's one of those things that you never know — I never thought I'd ever be creating alongside Taylor Swift. Never in a million years. And then when it happened, I just thought I can't imagine not creating alongside her." 

Taylor and her team are well-known for keeping projects under lock and key until they're ready to announce them. "The Fate of Ophelia" music video was no different, Mandy said. 

Taylor Swift performs onstage during night two of "Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour" at La Defense on May 10, 2024 in Paris, France.© Getty Images for TAS Rights Mana
Taylor Swift performs onstage during night two of "Taylor Swift | The Eras Tour" at La Defense on May 10, 2024 in Paris, France.

"It was awesome: It was in full secret, no one knew it was happening," she added. "Which I also love: that they're so good at keeping things under wraps. It's a big deal and all of us take it very seriously, so when it dropped and everybody got to see it, I was like 'ha ha! I knew this was happening.' It was so exciting." 

Mandy appeared on the DWTS podcast to discuss her work choreographing the opening number for DWTS's Disney Night, as well as her past work on the ballroom dancing competition show. (There's also further Taylor-DWTS crossover this season, now that former Eras Tour backup dancer Jan Ravnik has joined the cast as one of this season's pro dancers.) 

Taylor Swift performs on stage during "The Eras Tour© Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for TAS
Taylor Swift, followed by now-DWTS pro Jan Ravnik (left), performs on stage during "The Eras Tour

"It's oddly not [so different]," Mandy said of comparing her work on DWTS and the Eras Tour. "Maybe it's because any job I do I take very seriously. I really love it and it's everything to me in the moment. Yeah, sure, choreographing for 90,000 people, is it any different than the millions of people that watch this? I mean, it's a different medium, it's camera, but Taylor loves to tell stories in her songs; I love to tell stories in my choreography. There's storytelling here. So for me, honestly, I'm just happy when anyone calls me and asks me to make up dance moves. I love it." 

 Taylor Swift performs onstage during The Eras Tour at Rogers Centre on November 14, 2024© Getty Images for TAS Rights Mana
Taylor Swift performs onstage during The Eras Tour at Rogers Centre on November 14, 2024

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