Bhakti Patel (front), a member of the U-M Medical School class of 2007 from Chicago, serves, along with classmates Roshni Aggarwal (back) and Ayo-Lynn Richards (not pictured), as co-director of Biorhythms, a medical student dance ensemble.

“I think being in the arts makes you sensitive to raw emotion and real feelings. Today, I was having a lot of difficult conversations with a family. I could sit down at their level and be present, not only with my words and thoughts, but with my posture and my touch. I hope, at least, that I gave a sense of peace to that family.

“A lot of the time, when you’re dancing and learning a new routine, it’s important to not think about it too much. And it’s the same with a patient; if you’re making it too intellectual and academic, it’s not good enough — it’s not warm. In a way, you need to be ‘dancing’ with your patient and their family. When the dance is perfect — done almost without thinking — that’s the best you can get.”

—Bhakti Patel

Interview by Whitley Hill
Photograph by J. Adrian Wylie