Raising the barre: A second act for UCI grad

UC Irvine graduate Cassidy Doan will trade her toe shoes for a lab coat this fall as she retires from her career as a professional ballerina and enrolls in medical school. In December, Doan danced her last performance as Clara in Festival Ballet Theatre’s “The Nutcracker” on the Irvine Barclay stage, where she first danced 16 years ago. The moment felt all the more poignant as her Southland Ballet Academy students – the same school where she trained – joined her onstage.

“I’ve grown up at The Barclay, from my first performance as an angel to my final performance with my students,” Doan says. “To see them backstage getting nervous, I felt those same butterflies as a kid. Now I’m dancing the principal role.”

Doan began dancing at the Southland Ballet Academy at age 3. Ten years later, she had a difficult decision to make: pursue a professional career as a ballerina or focus on academics. Even then, she had aspirations to attend medical school, and her transcript proved she could make the grade.

“I knew at 13 I had to make a decision that would impact the rest of my life,” she says.

Monumental move

The following year, Doan danced as Clara for the first time. Two months later, she competed at the Youth America Grand Prix and placed second as the youngest dancer in the 15- to 20-year-old category. She went on to compete in New York, which garnered her a full scholarship to Houston Ballet. She would be the youngest in Houston’s company and its only Vietnamese American dancer.

“It’s like receiving a scholarship to the Ivy League,” Doan says. “I had two months to decide.” The decision meant living alone in Texas – away from school, family and friends in her own apartment. It meant dancing eight hours a day, six days a week, and studying online at night. After weeks of negotiations, her parents gave in.

“Getting accepted was the mountain to climb,” Doan says. “Now I had to reach the summit. It required a lot of grit, time management and discipline. All qualities that help me today.”

A life-changing choice

Two years later, Doan lost her uncle to COVID and her mother was hospitalized. Doan moved home and made a choice that would change everything. “I realized I was pursuing a career that wasn’t considered essential at the time. That opened my eyes. Ballet shaped the person I became, giving me mental and physical dexterity, perseverance, sacrifice and discipline. But I wanted to make a real difference.”

She enrolled at UC Irvine in 2021, double-majoring in dance and biology. Entering a 400-person lecture hall felt intimidating after years of online schooling. “I told myself if I performed on global stages in London, Paris and New York in front of 10,000 people, I could take an in-person exam.”

She scored 98% on her first chemistry test and began shadowing physicians while working in a pediatric oncology research lab and as a medical assistant for a pulmonologist. All the while, Doan continued teaching at Southland Ballet on the weekends. In 2024, she graduated magna cum laude a semester early from UC Irvine with two degrees.

“I wish I could turn back time and tell myself it would all be worth it,” Doan says. “That’s the message I leave my students – hard work in the studio translates into academics. The discipline from ballet will carry with you no matter what field you enter.”

To parents, Doan advises: “The arts bring a plethora of opportunities and skills that can be applied to any career. Don’t deter your children from exploring. Allow them to embrace their journey.”