There is no question the zeitgeist moment of the Oscars was Ryan Gosling’s ”I’m Just Ken” dance number. And, once again, it turns out that the maker of that indelible moment was Colorado choreographer Mandy Moore.

And if she’d had her way, it would have been even bigger.

Gosling, in a bright pink bedazzled suit and black cowboy hat, led an army of 62 Kens in an all-out dance number that paid homage to the “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” moment from  “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.” The outrageously popular number included street-style dancing, filled the stage with Barbie cardboard cut-outs and ended in a Rockettes-style kickline. Guns N’ Roses guitarist Slash even played a solo at the end.

Moore’s original plan called for 100 Kens – but there just wasn’t enough room for all of them on the stage.

Moore told The Hollywood Reporter the number came together in less than a week, and that there was only one full-on run-through rehearsal of the entire number before the big event, watched by an estimated 19.5 million ABC viewers.

“A lot of times, live TV works like that, especially when you’re working with people of this stature,” Moore told the Reporter. “They’re A-listers. They have crazy schedules, they’re off on tours. I’m also very used to that with live TV, so I just have to create the number in a way where I can slot people in very quickly.

Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic called the number “the most lovable Oscars musical moment in years.” What made it so, he said, was that “I’m Just Ken” is “a deeply silly song about self-seriousness,” making for “an irony-meets-sincerity cyclone of the highest order.”

Missy Moore, Mandy’s sister and the artistic director of the Thunder River Theatre Company in Carbondale, was riding in the car with Mandy at the end of January when she took a random call from Raj Kapoor, the executive producer and showrunner of the 2024 Oscars broadcast. He asked Mandy if she wanted to choreograph the number for the show. Her one-word answer?

“Sure.”

Mandy Moore said the opportunity – and the challenge – was that the number could not simply recreate that song as it was presented in the movie.

“In the film, they’re fighting during the song, but there’s also the dream ballet,” she told the Reporter. “And so we really took a 180 from that and went a lot more street style, rugged, a little rascally, and put some ‘social’ dance steps in there.”

“Barbie” writer and director Greta Gerwig told Moore: “My only dream for this is that everyone is up and singing at the end – so you have to create a performance that allows people to do that.” What resulted was something akin to a rock concert.

“It was mayhem,” Moore said. The energy, she said, “was so hype.”

Moore, a graduate of Summit High School in Breckenridge, has been widely praised for choreographing Taylor Swift’s ongoing worldwide Eras Tour. She has been nominated for 12 Emmy Awards and won four. She previously worked with Gosling as choreographer of the film “La La Land.” Her credits also include “Silver Linings Playbook” and the TV shows “So You Think You Can Dance,” “Dancing with the Stars” and “Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist.” On May 23, Moore won the Chita Rivera Award for Best Choreography in Film for her work on “Babylon.”

Moore also choreographed the “In Memoriam” segment of the Oscars broadcast which featured Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli and his son, Matteo, performing “Con te partirò” as Moore’s dancers performed alongside photos of the departed behind them.

On Monday, Moore starts back up with work on the European leg of Swift’s tour.