By Daphne Chen
Editor-in-Chief
When 2008 graduate Tiffany Cassius left high school after four years in the choir program, she probably never thought that she would end up working there less than a year later.
However, when director Jeff Schultz called Cassius last year and asked if she would like to help as a choreographer for Vivace, she couldn’t turn him down.
“I was terrified out of my mind the first year,” Cassius said. “The whole time I was like, ‘What’re they thinking? They probably think I’m an idiot’.”
Now in her second year on the job, Cassius is taking the chance to institute some changes she would have liked to see as a student, such as including members in the brainstorming process.
“When I was in Vivace, I used to get kind of irritated about always being told what to do,” Cassius said. “These singers have stepped up their A-game because they’re coming up with their own song ideas, costume ideas, themes.”
The choir program has been rocky for the past few years, having gone through three different directors in four years and four different choreographers in the same time.
“Tiffany’s the only one that’s really stuck throughout the time that I’ve been Vivace,” senior Avery Szalkowski said. “It’s better that she was in Vivace and now she’s choreographing, because she knows exactly what our style is and what Vivace means as a group. We’ve had choreographers come in before and try to make us into a ballet troupe or something, and that’s just not us.”
Because of this comfort level, students find it easy to befriend Cassius, who cannot walk inconspicuously through the choir hall without being spotted and greeted.
“She talks really fast and she says things that don’t make sense,” Vivace captain and senior Libby Ainsworth said. “When she’s trying to tell us how to do moves, she’ll be like ‘Make your hands really big and flap them around, like a flamingo dancing on a frog!’, or something like that. It makes you laugh and it lightens the mood, and she keeps a straight face the entire time.”
Cassius, now 19, has also become more experienced at handling the age gap that sometimes put her in the awkward position of being a teacher to former classmates and friends. Many still remember her when she was still a student at CHS.
“It was difficult to … when it comes to Vivace, to keep it processional and remember that this is her job and that this is my job,” Ainsworth said. “But once you get that down, she’s an awesome person to work with.”
Cassius is currently assembling songs for Vivace’s November show, planning to add a bit more “rock n’ roll” to the repertoire to spice up the usual hip hop and jazz routines. For example, one of the songs she has chosen is the Fall Out Boy remix of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It.”
“Inspiration for me can come from any form of entertainment – it is the most erratic thing,” Cassius said. “Like I was watching Law and Order one time, and suddenly I got this idea for a detective dance.”
She does have a soft spot for theatrics, often designing performances that require props, costumes and “crazy stunts,” and is ready to pull out all the stops for November.
“I love it,” Cassius said. “I mean, who expects a high school choir to come up with this kind of crazy stuff?”
Now, all of Coppell will. And although Cassius does not see herself still working at CHS after graduation, many hope that she doesn’t “Beat It” anytime soon.
