A student in the Doctor of Physical Therapy Seattle program combines her passion for dance and science with a beautiful pas de deux
Stevie Oakes is a classically trained dancer who hopes to help performers take care of their bodies as a student in the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) Seattle program at Tufts University School of Medicine. Photo: Steven Trumon Gray
When elite artists such as concert pianists or Broadway dancers have aches, pains, or injuries, the stakes are as high as a ballerina’s grand jeté, for both the individual and the medical professionals treating them.
Stevie Oakes has been on both sides of that relationship. She’s a classically trained dancer who has performed for and toured with contemporary dance companies and taught dance for a decade at SUNY Brockport. Now, she’s bringing her longtime passion for helping performers take care of their bodies to the next level as a student in the Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) Seattle program at Tufts University School of Medicine.
“I understand the unique physical demands on elite musicians and dancers in a way that people who haven’t been high-level performers or athletes might not,” says Oakes, who is part of the first cohort of students in the DPT-Seattle program. “Your sound and your performance are part of your identity.”
The Finest of Arts
Tufts DPT students are required to complete 31 weeks of clinical education across three rotations of their choice. Some go into hospital settings and embed themselves in pediatrics or neurology. Others dive into sports environments or school settings.
For her first clinical placement, Oakes landed at a school, but not just any school. She’s fine-tuning her craft at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, one of the world’s most prestigious music conservatories.
“The undergraduate and graduate students there who play instruments use very nuanced hand and wrist motions with a lot of nerve tension,” Oakes says. “It has been really humbling to be in those rooms and watch expert clinicians who specialize in treating performing artists work their magic.”
As a physical therapy student, Oakes suggests the most appropriate treatment, under close guidance from clinical physical therapy instructors who help her navigate medical decisions and report back to Tufts faculty with assessments on her work. The instructors provide a safety net and remind her of questions she should ask or elements of a case she might be missing.
The hybrid and accelerated nature of the Tufts DPT programs enabled Stevie Oakes to not uproot her life to earn her degree. She said she chose the DPT-Seattle program because of the faculty. Photo: Quinton Kappel
“For relatively straightforward conditions, like textbook wrist tendonitis, the instructors let me take the lead in conversations with patients,” Oakes said. “If it is a more complex issue, or if I feel like I'm out of my depth, I am very grateful that I can discuss the case with more experienced clinicians, both in and out of the classroom.”
This fall, she’ll spend her third rotation at FlySpace Physical Therapy, a private practice in New York City. Broadway shows contract with the practice to treat their performers, which can take place either at the clinic or backstage at a theater—which means that Oakes and the physical therapy team have the best seat in the house to some of the most popular shows in town. FlySpace also contracts with off-Broadway productions, dance schools and companies, and other performing arts groups across New York City.
Typically, she explained, the FlySpace team treats performers backstage before the show. The actors and dancers might need an adjustment to their ankle, or have tight calves or hips, or have a question about warming up after an injury. When people need more continuous care, they go to the clinic.
“Hopefully, nothing will happen during the show, or if it does, it’s something mild, like somebody needs their kinesiology tape redone,” said Oakes. “Sometimes our job aligns with athletic training, in that our role is to get patients back on the field—or stage—safely and appropriately. And when injuries take them out, we rehabilitate patients to a point where they can get back to that super virtuosic level.”
Her Path to Physical Therapy
Oakes grew up as a dancer, mostly in ballet. When she was an undergraduate student majoring in chemistry at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, “the big, wide world of modern dance opened up to me, and broadened my understanding of what dance was and what it could be.”
As an undergrad, Oakes moved to New York for a summer to intern at the Harkness Center for Dance Injuries at NYU Langone Orthopedic Hospital. After graduation, she moved back to New York to attend New York University Tisch School of the Arts, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts in dance. She continued to attend educational opportunities at the Harkness Center, learning how to apply medical science to dance.
“In elite performing arts, you are championship-level all the time, and that is not a reasonable ask. As physical therapists, we have to think about injury prevention through strength training and patient education,” said physical therapy student Stevie Oakes. Photo: Steven Trumon Gray
She was living a dancer’s life, going to classes, performing with contemporary ballet companies, and going on tour with the Gibney Dance Company. But she also stayed grounded in the health and wellness space. Eventually, she started applying for teaching positions and landed a full-time, one-year appointment to SUNY Brockport in the dance department.
“They needed a dance science nerd, someone who could teach anatomy and kinesiology in the studio,” Oakes recalled. “My plan was to leave New York City for a year and then come back, but I ended up spending 10 years on faculty there because I loved the work.”
However, when her dancers would come to her with a condition or injury, she was not a medical professional, so diagnosis and treatment were outside the scope of her skills. Physical therapy felt like the next logical step for her.
Leaving her full-time job and going back to school was not a decision Oakes made lightly. She and her partner live with their two pets in Rochester, New York, and the hybrid and accelerated nature of the Tufts DPT programs enabled Oakes to not uproot their lives to earn her degree. She said she chose the DPT-Seattle program because of the faculty, especially her academic coach, Shefali Christopher, associate professor at the School of Medicine.
“I understand the unique physical demands on elite musicians and dancers in a way that people who haven’t been high-level performers or athletes might not. Your sound and your performance are part of your identity.”
The Mission of Performing Arts Medicine
Prehabilitation is part of the mission of performing arts medicine, Oakes said.
“In elite performing arts, there is no championship game. You are championship-level all the time, and that is not a reasonable ask. Broadway performers put on eight shows a week or more. As physical therapists, we have to think about injury prevention through strength training and patient education,” she said.
For example, say a musician tells Oakes that they are practicing for 3-4 hours at a time without a break, and as a result, their shoulder is starting to hurt. Clinicians in the field of performing arts medicine won’t tell such a patient they should not practice for hours a day, because they understand the physical demands on the artist. Instead, Oakes might counsel them to set a timer for every 20 minutes, at which point they should take a short break to adjust their posture and do some reset exercises. Or she may suggest some adaptive equipment that adjusts the positioning of their instrument.
She likened her efforts to workplace ergonomics. If someone’s computer is too low, they may develop a sore neck. But the solution isn’t getting rid of the computer; it’s changing how they use it.
Elite artists have unique considerations. For example, performing on a raked stage, which is sloped upwards away from the audience, can be challenging and cause stress on ankles and knees—and sometimes further up the kinetic chain to the lower back. Physical therapists are engaged in discussions about what shoes should be worn and how high the heels can be relative to the rake of the stage, or how high the heels can be relative to the size of the headdress on someone’s head, and how the headdress is affixed so it won’t cause neck pain.
“I’m not interested in changing the art,” she said. “The physical therapy has to meet the art.”
