“Workin’ 9 to 5, what a way to make a livin’” may stand true in the workforce but, for some students, that time can be applied to school.

Senior Tamatha Vaughn is one of these students. She find herself at Northwest in the early morning and going into the afternoon, sometimes even leaving after the sun has gone down. Her reason for staying? Choir.

“Tamatha is my vice president of the choir concert, so she helps me a lot with the events we do and with our choreography,” senior Angelyn Montanez said. “We usually allow a senior to handle our choreography and Tamatha has taken on that this year.”

Vaughn has been credited with the flashmob, the dance done on their homecoming parade float, and is expected to choreograph some of the dances in Bearlesque this year.

“I think she should have done more in the past,” Montanez said. “People like her dance moves a lot more than some of the other people who have done them. They’re a lot more fun and she actually is one of our really fun instructors. She’s really strict but yet she’ll bring a smile to your face and make dancing fun for everyone.”

Vaughn enjoys what she does, but sometimes experiences “dancer block” which can lead to her having trouble thinking of the moves she needs to create the idea given to her by Mrs. Brown.

Her skilled dancing and experience in choreography comes from years of practice. Vaughn has performed local shows as a part of a dance group called POSE at clubs, festivals, and events such as a hair show at ABODE. Before joining her POSE, she used to dance in a studio for 14 years. It was there she competed in tap, jazz, ballet, hip-hop, and several other dance genres.

“I was at that studio four, five days out of the week for a couple hours each. You could say I’m dedicated,” Vaughn said. “I do a lot of it [dance] all the time. Especially now that we don’t do a lot of shows with the group, I still like working on stuff for Bearlesque and choir, I just do extra stuff to get me to do dance and focus on dance.”

Her group isn’t as active anymore, but they still get together and talk about events if they’re really interested in participating. For now, she’s using her experiences to prepare herself for her future goals.

“At first it was the whole famous thing ‘I wanna be a known choreographer’ and ‘I want to do this and that’ and ‘I wanna be in music videos’. But now it’s changed, I want to help the little girls, teach them and maybe they can grow up and go be the stars,” Vaughn said. “I wanna give them the motivation and love I have for dance. I want them to be able to strive for their dreams and I just want to be the person that’s standing behind them and pushing them just a little bit, you know? Working them hard. That’s what happened to me.”

Vaughn’s change of heart came about a few months before senior year after walking into a studio and seeing a group of little girls learning how to dance. She enjoys performing and being on stage and wouldn’t hesitate to jump at the opportunity for her famous aspirations.

“I just want to be more behind the scenes now,” Vaughn said, “I just want to be their inspiration for wanting to go off and do the big things.”