Guest Speaker Helps Musicians Play Without Pain
Physical injuries often are associated with football, tennis and other sports. Yet, musicians and dancers also can face debilitating and career-threatening physical problems.
Guest speaker and osteopathic specialist Dr. David N. Grimshaw will present “Playing Without Pain: Integrative Medicine and the Performing Arts” at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Feb. 13 in the Dow Science Center, Room L-4, at Alma College. Admission is free and open to the public.
The lecture will focus on the necessity, specialization and practice of performing arts medicine, says Alma Symphony Orchestra Director Murray Gross.
Dr. David Grimshaw
“Many musicians at every performance level face physical problems and pain from the repetition of performance,” says Gross. “For example, holding a violin isn’t exactly the most natural pose in the world. Slight maladjustments in form and technique can result in serious neck and back pain. You don’t have to perform for hours on end to be effected by such injuries.”
Performing arts medicine has become a specialized medical field, one in which Grimshaw has a particular interest and expertise, says Gross.
Grimshaw is Board Certified in family medicine and osteopathic manipulative medicine and currently runs his private practice in Okemos, focusing on neuromusculoskeletal medicine, performing arts medicine, and cranial osteopathy. As a physician member/medical director of the Healthy Musicianship Team at the Michigan State University College of Music, Grimshaw works to change the paradigm within music education to a health conscious approach to music making and teaching.
“My vocation is to understand healing,” says Grimshaw. “I am interested in helping people look at their health in a broad context, forming partnerships to facilitate healing. I see my role as one who listens with head, heart and hands in order to develop an understanding of the person, the problem, and how they relate to each other.”
Grimshaw is co-author of “Music Education and Performing Arts Medicine: The State of the Alliance.” He also lectures on such topics as “Caring for the Performing Artist” and “Medicine and the Performing Artist: What Does it Look Like?”
“I know this talk will be valuable even to the non-musicians on campus,” says Gross. “This lecture will span general health issues, injury prevention, and will include a Q & A afterwards that will benefit a range of performing artists and those interested in medical specialties.”
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Posted: Wed, February 1st, 2012 at 6:44PM
