So You Think You Can Dance

Vienna—10 balls in 15 days: That's how Jeff Kraut spent a recent vacation. He has a private pediatric practice in Fort Bragg, Calif., and works as a general emergency room physician at Mendocino Coast District Hospital. But during his off time, he is an expert ballroom dancer. "I started dancing very innocently in 1999," Kraut said, when he planned to take a month's worth of lessons so that he'd be able to dance socially. Since then he has attended nine Stanford Viennese balls. He won the 2009 waltz contest with partner Diane Coughtry (above). He earned the coveted triple crown T-shirt for his three appearances at Stanford's Big Dance, and he performed the samba for halftime at an Oakland Raiders game. Though he occasionally competes, Kraut is in it for fun. But it doesn't hurt that he has made it onto local Viennese TV.