An Alberta man is leaping, turning and kicking his way through medical school.
24 year old Jason Vaz excels in two very different areas- ballet and medicine. He is a full time med student at the University of Alberta as well as a full time professional dancer with a local ballet company.
After two years of medical school Vaz had to make a decision, choose ballet or choose to become a doctor. Instead, he is doing both.
Vaz and the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry have come up with an arrangement so both of his dreams can come true. He is doing his final year of school over the course of two years to make room for dance.
Vaz, originally from Medicine Hat, began dancing late in terms of someone who wants to pursue ballet seriously. He didn’t start taking ballet until late into his teen years.
Vaz has since danced in New York, Montreal, Toronto and is now dancing full time with Citie Ballet here in Edmonton.
Citie Ballet’s Artistic Director Francois Chevennement trains with Vaz everyday and says he has a unique talent. He is happy to have Vaz in his company because talented, male ballet dancers are hard to come by, especially those who are dominant on the left side.
“They are rare, those dancers who can do double tour en l’air or triple pirouettes on the left side,” Chevennement explains.
Vaz comes from a family of doctors and people in the medical field so says that has always been a passion of his as well.
It was at the end of his second year of school, while dancing in Citie Ballet’s final performance of the year he knew he had to find a way to do both.
“And so going into that performance, the thoughts started rolling around that this could be it, this could be the final performance ever. And that sense of urgency is what really drove me to go and talk to Dr. Lewis,” recalls Vaz.
Dr. Melanie Lewis, Associate Dean of Learner Advocacy, says the University has made accommodations for parents and other athletes in the past and after seeing how talented Vaz was, she was willing to do anything she could to make sure he could pursue both of his passions.
“We knew what courses he had to do in (his third year) so we could figure out when he was going to be performing, when he wanted to try out for different companies and then we could just work the schedule around that,” Lewis explains.
Vaz says he wouldn’t have been completely satisfied walking away from dancing so is grateful the faculty has been so understanding, rearranging his schedule so he can do it all.
“The plan is to finish both my dancing commitments and aspirations, as well as those forth year requirements within two to three years,” explains Vaz.
Dr. Lewis believes few students would be able to take on the work load Vaz has. She says he is very gifted intellectually and artistically and that will actually help him become a better doctor.
“The fact that he can relate well to an audience and relate well to music transfers into his ability to relate well to patients. I think that’s a gift in medicine, it’s kind of what makes good physicians exceptional,” Lewis says.
Chevennement agrees. He believes the discipline he has learned through ballet training will translate through to his school work.
“Ballet is really rigorous in work, so you need to be focused.”
Vaz says going through dance training and medical school has taught him two separate sets of ideals that will help him in whatever life throws at him.
“The fact that I’ve now experienced both sides of that communication and both sides of that ability to relate to ideas and to people is something, I hope, will enrich me in the future.”
With files from Su-Ling Goh.
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