AAMC Reporter: May 2008

Follow Your Own Star

Taylor S. Riall, M.D., (left) recently auditioned for the popular television show, "Dancing With the Stars."

Pancreatic cancer surgeon Taylor S. Riall, M.D., has always been active. As a high school student, she was a nationally competitive diver, and later in life she dabbled in long-distance running, even completing a marathon. But nowadays, she has found success on a new playing field: the dance floor. And she's looking to dance all the way to the top.

Riall, an assistant professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch Hospitals at Galveston, says she started taking dance lessons in 1999, during her residency training. It immediately clicked. She had soon mastered the waltz, foxtrot, cha-cha, and the rumba.

"It's such good exercise, and great release from your day," Riall says. "The Latin dances are my favorites, because I love the upbeat music and fast pace."

She loves it so much that you can find her most weekends at dance clubs with her husband, whom she met at—you guessed it—a dance class.

But Riall doesn't want to stop with the weekend circuit. She recently tried out for a spot on the popular ABC program "Dancing With the Stars," under the premise that she was a "star" among pancreatic cancer surgeons. She was not ultimately selected, but it certainly was not for lack of heart.

"It was a bit frustrating," she laments. "It could have been great fun, and a unique way to raise awareness about this disease."

Riall says she's open to giving it another try down the road, and in the meantime she'll keep practicing her steps. Riall says that not unlike surgery, there are a series of skills that one can continuously hone. Only when one no longer recognizes areas for improvement does one stop learning.

"I'm not the most musically inclined," she jokes. "So I really have to train myself to hear some beats."

—By Elissa Fuchs

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