The Eras Tour might belong to Taylor Swift — but the pop star’s bejeweled dancers, backup vocalists and band members help the whole place shimmer.
Kicking off in April 2023, Swift’s career-spanning stadium concert consists of a three-and-a-half-hour journey that takes fans through 44 songs grouped into 10 acts, with each one portraying a different album conceptually. On stage alongside Swift are sixteen dancers, three backup vocalists and a live band of six instrumentalists, many of whom have toured with the singer for more than a decade.
“Something of that magnitude, you just hope that it’s going to be a match when you’re working with somebody and it really was. I dig her music and I dig her and I love her vision,” Swift’s Eras Tour choreographer, Mandy Moore, told Page Six in November 2023 of the massive undertaking. “It’s so nice to be on a team with somebody.”
While Moore admitted that bringing the project to life was anything but “easy,” she praised Swift for her professionalism and down-to-earth nature.
“It was a ton of numbers in a very short amount of time, but I have to say, every day I went to work, I was just like, ‘This is amazing,’” she gushed. “We’re in this massive stadium, putting it up, rehearsing it, and [Taylor] just walks in, just normal, like, sits on the stage and wants to practice whatever. I just love that that’s who she is!”
Keep scrolling for a full guide to Swift’s Eras Tour backup dancers and vocalists:
Kameron Saunders
The University of Missouri-Kansas City graduate has gone viral online for his performance during “Bejeweled.” Prior to his time with Swift, Saunders has toured with several prominent dance companies including Dallas Black Dance Theatre, Saint Louis Ballet and Missouri Contemporary Ballet. He also appeared in 2023’s The Color Purple and the Ryan Reynolds-led Christmas movie Spirited.
Off stage, Kameron has a deeper connection to Swift as his brother, Khalen Saunders, used to play for the Kansas City Chiefs alongside her then-boyfriend, Travis Kelce.
Kameron detailed learning he got the gig in Swift’s End of an Era docuseries.
“Spaces like space that Taylor is curating on a night-to-night basis, I wish we had more of that, even outside of entertaining,” Kameron said. “It’s so important to be heard, to be understood. My background as a dancer, I had a lot of dancers and professors who were not-so-kind, mostly around my size and if I wanted to be a professional dancer.”
Kameron initially planned to teach dance until getting a “confidential” audition opportunity for a then-unnamed artist and choreographer Mandy Moore.
“I didn’t have a dollar to my name, and I called my brother [Khalen], like, ‘Listen, I don’t know what this is, but something is telling me I have to be in this room,’” he said.
Moore revealed in a separate interview that Kameron was “magnetic” in his initial audition.
“He’s a great dancer, his smile is like the thousand-watt smile,” she added. “He just embodies what I felt the spirit of what these people need to be.”
Swift, for her part, gushed that Kameron “lights up” the stage and the “entire vibe as a tour.”
Kevin Scheitzbach
Typically working as a duo alongside brother Michael Scheitzbach, Kevin specializes in jazz funk and street styles of dance. He graduated as a high honors dance major from St. Thomas Aquinas Regional Arts Program in 2019.
Kevin has worked at events like Paula Abdul’s White Party, Coachella with 88Rising and various music videos. He previously appeared in Disney’s Zombies 2, The Next Step, Rookie Blue and Backstage.
Sam Mcwilliams
Fans first spotted Mcwilliams during his performance with Kevin during “Lover” but has since become a Swiftie favorite for how he interacts with the crowd on stage. Prior to his work with Swift, Mcwilliams has danced for Bebe Rexha and Meghan Trainor and has performed on So You Think You Can Dance? and at the American Music Awards.
Raphael Thomas
Thomas has become a fan favorite on the tour as he appears as Swift’s on-stage love interest in “Style” and during the famous “Tolerate It” performance, where the two sit across a table from each other as their relationship falls apart.
Prior to his time with the pop star, he performed with artists such as Mary J Blige, Janet Jackson and John Legend.
Taylor Banks
Banks has an extensive resume. She has performed with artists such as Jennifer Lopez, Justin Timberlake, Billie Eilish, Mariah Carey, Ciara, Cher, Mario, Dua Lipa, Muse and Carrie Underwood. In addition to her dance background, she’s modeled for brands like Nike, Rebok and Skechers.
Banks spoke about the concert being compared to other legendary acts in End of an Era.
“When people start comparing you to The Beatles and [Michael Jackson], you just don’t expect that what you’re getting into is going to be that,” she said in the first episode.
Jan Ravnik
In addition to Swift, Ravnik has been a backup dancer for Abdul, Mariah Carey and Bruno Mars. He’s also appeared on X Factor and Got Talent. He joined Dancing With the Stars as a pro dancer for 2025’s season 34, where he was partnered with reality star Jen Affleck.
Natalie Reid
Reid graduated from Chapman University after majoring in dance. She later studied under Eras Tour choreographer Moore at the Edge Performing Arts Center and has performed with artists such as Eilish, Lopez and Pitbull. She was also a Radio City Rockette for 11 seasons.
Natalie Peterson
Peterson worked as the assistant choreographer for Karol G’s Bichota Tour before joining Swift on the Eras Tour. She is a graduate from Chapman University with two bachelor’s degrees: Dance and Public Relations and Advertising.
“It’s so beautiful to find something so positive that can be an escape for people like this can,” she said in End of an Era. “It’s amazing that what we’ve been apart of can do that for people.”
Tori Evans
After studying dance at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Evans went on to perform with artists like Blige, Cardi B and Jason Derulo. She has also danced on The Kelly Clarkson Show, The Masked Singer and The Price is Right.
Whyley Yoshimura
Yoshimura has worked with A-list artists such as Lopez, Jackson, Rihanna, Justin Bieber and Christina Aguilera.
Tamiya Lewis
Lewis is an MVA pro dancer with Velocity Dance Convention, a national touring dance convention and competition.
Audrey Douglass
Douglass has danced for Dua Lipa, Beyoncé and Gwen Stefani. She’s also acted in 2016’s La La Land, Glee and Parks and Recreation and performed at the Grammys. Like Reid, she has worked as a NYC Rockette.
Karen Chuang
A dancer, teacher and choreographer, Chuang has worked with artists like Jackson, Minaj, Lady Gaga, Pink and Khalid.
Amanda Balen
Balen also danced on the tour.
“The first time that I saw her do her thing, she was choreographing the tour, she was not a dancer,” Swift said in her doc. “Her job was to show me what I’d be doing with the dancers. I would just get so much inspiration from what she was doing as a performer. I just kept saying like, ‘You’re such a pop star, Amanda.’”
She continued, “I remember asking Mandy, ‘I wonder if Amanda would ever dance with us,’ and Mandy was like, ‘She’s retired, she hung up her dancing shoes a while ago.’”
While Balen was initially hesitant to sign on as a dancer because of past injuries, she changed her mind when she realized it was “too wonderful of an opportunity” and “a second chance.”
Jeslyn Gorman
Gorman has been working a backup vocalist since Swift’s Red Tour in 2013. In addition to teaming up with Swift, Gorman has performed with musicians like Trainor, Derulo, Nick Jonas and Rita Ora.
Melanie Nyema
Nyema first appeared on stage with Swift at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards and has since worked with the singer as a backup vocalist and dancer. She has also shared the stage with Taylor Hicks and Barry Manilow.
Kamilah Marshall
Like Gorman, Marshall has also served as Swift’s backup vocalist since the Red Tour and has also been spotted out and about with Swift and her inner circle. In 2021, she was featured as a party guest in Swift’s All Too Well: The Short Film and worked on soundtracks for Sex and the City 2 and Hairspray.
Prior to her time with Swift, Marshall graduated early from high school to go on tour with Nell Carter, Salt N’ Pepa and Patti LuPone.
In the Disney+ doc, Marshall waxed nostalgic about the impact of the tour.
“Truly, everyone will tell you that none of us knew what The Eras Tour was becoming,” she said.
Amos Heller
Heller has been Swift’s bassist since 2007.
“I usually practice [for the shows] in the shower because I’m trying to respect the space and peace of everyone else,” he said in a doc interview. “If you need to do something noisy, I go somewhere that people aren’t. Showers are a good enough bet.”
According to Heller, the pop star has remained “consistent” throughout her career.
“There isn’t a challenge that she isn’t going to meet head-on and, kind of, decide to conquer,” he said. “Having that kind of energy in the lead spot has inspired, I can say, me personally to do a lot of the same things.
Matt Billingslea
Billingslea plays drums in Swift’s band.
“At her shows, the crowd is always at bananas-level, and this is a whole other gear,” he said in the doc. “Or two.”
Mike Meadows
Meadows was one of the band leaders for Eras, who detailed in the doc how Swift’s “Florida!!!” duet with Florence Welch impacted the show. (The two women performed the track in London and Miami, respectively.)
“You’re not nervous about the show, and suddenly, it’s something like Florence coming to do ‘Florida!!!’ [where] the choreography meets the music meets automation, which is the stage movement, is starting from scratch again.”
Mandy Moore
Emmy-winning choreographer Moore crafted all of the Eras dances.
“With choreography, I asked one of my friends Emma Stone, who’s done a lot of work in dance in her films, ‘Who have you worked with that you would recommend for this?’” Swift said in her doc. “She’s like, ‘There’s only one person that needs to be on your list, and it’s Mandy Moore.’”
Moore was flabbergasted to be hired by Swift.
“I never would have thought that I would be in the same sentence as Taylor Swift ever in my life,” Moore said. “You know, I’ve always been a big fan, but funny enough, I come from more film and television. I don’t really do artists’ performance. Now, I understand why I was brought in. She really wanted to do something different and she likes the storytelling. I mean, her songs are mini movies, so when I listen to them, it’s just lyrics and melodies swirling with ideas in my head, and then you just start making something.”
