Phew!\u00a0 Now that the holidays are over and my business travels are complete, I look forward to getting back into the regular swing of things.\u00a0 I know I have missed talking with you in the \u201cMusic in Van Wert\u201d column the past few weeks.\u00a0 We just returned from New York City and are now ready to do the work of the people in the world of music and arts.<\/p>\n
Today was actually a day of jumping right back into things with the Russian Ballet\u2019s performance of \u201cCinderella.\u201d\u00a0 I am writing now between the afternoon matinee and this evening\u2019s public performance.\u00a0 Winter has returned with more snow, wind and frigid temperatures, but it was definitely warm inside the Niswonger today with about 600 children being entertained by a dance troupe from Russia in an art form we rarely see in these parts.<\/p>\n
Thanks to Family Medicine Associates Inc. and The Motorists Insurance Group represented by Henkle Insurance, nearly 600 school children had the opportunity to witness a ballet, performed by world-class Russian dancers.\u00a0 As I was sitting in the balcony watching the matinee performance, it really hit me as to why it is important to expose young children to such an art form.\u00a0 I expressed my thoughts immediately afterward in a TV interview with WTLW Channel 44 of Lima.\u00a0 We hear from politicians who tell school administrators, who tell teachers, who tell parents and students just how important math and science are to our education.\u00a0 And they are right, but \u2026 one thing this performance of the ballet made students do today was use their imaginations.\u00a0Anymore, we rarely offer the opportunities for kids to imagine and dream.\u00a0\u00a0 Remember when you were a kid?\u00a0 On a sunny, warm day, you could sit in the grass and imagine, looking at clouds in the sky, sunbeams through the air, wind blowing and birds singing; these were all things we had time to do.\u00a0 Kids today (and adults too) don\u2019t have time for this \u201cfrivolous\u201d activity.\u00a0 We are too busy doing what others tell us we need to do.<\/p>\n
Think about all the great inventions over the past century or two.\u00a0 I am sure they started with imagination.\u00a0 Even the things we\u2019ve created now that take all our time, were started with imagination; the \u201cwhat if\u201d question.\u00a0 Employers today want and need mathematicians and scientists, but the world also really needs people who dream, imagine and create.\u00a0 This is what music offers.\u00a0 This is what the arts offer.<\/p>\n
The children today watching the ballet may have had some idea of what the story of Cinderella is about, but they needed to use their imaginations to fit the dancing, music, movements, scenery and beautiful costumes together to make the story of Cinderella come to life for themselves.\u00a0 There were no words spoken or sung.\u00a0 Where else are we going to nurture this than in the arts?\u00a0 So the next time you hear someone talk about the arts as a frivolous or extra-curricular school activity, I encourage you to think about what I have just said.<\/p>\n
There are many students who are rarely challenged on the creative side of the brain.\u00a0 That is a terrible oversight and disservice to their development.\u00a0 I applaud the school administrators who gave their students the opportunity today to attend a world-class ballet\u2026 and right here in Van Wert.\u00a0 Like I just told our Executive Secretary as he was leaving the building, \u201cI\u2019ll see you at the ballet tonight.\u201d\u00a0 How cool is that, that we can say something like this in the town of Van Wert!\u00a0 You know corn and culture both start with the same letter.<\/p>\n
FIN\u00c9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Phew!\u00a0 Now that the holidays are over and my business travels are complete, I look forward to getting back into the regular swing of things.\u00a0 I know I have missed talking with you in the \u201cMusic in Van Wert\u201d column the past few weeks.\u00a0 We just returned from New York City and are now ready […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 09:12:21","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47668\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}