ODU, Sentara Offer Course On Injury Prevention

We marvel at the agility of dancers leaping effortlessly across a stage and are dazzled by the nimble fingers of a violinist shifting octaves with ease. What we don’t see are the injuries performing artists sustain while practicing their craft.

How to prevent those injuries was the subject of a new course, The Healthy Performer, offered last fall by Old Dominion University and Sentara Healthcare. The two joined forces to teach performing arts students how to remain healthy and continually perform at their highest levels.

Offered through the ODU music department, this unique course was taught through a series of specialized classes. Musicians, dancers and other performing arts students learned not only how to prevent performance injuries, but also received instruction on the relationship of nutrition and performance and the importance of spinal health.