I feel very sorry for Bob Mooney if he has gone through life with so little positive experience with performing arts that he sees it as just an elitist preoccupation (letters, Saturday, March 12).
There was a great line in the Robin Williams movie, Dead Poet’s Society that while medicine, law, business, engineering are noble pursuits, necessary to sustain life, poetry and beauty are what we stay alive for.
Indeed, the earliest records of our species reveal that we have always performed and created not as a mere diversion but because in such realms as dance, song, and drama, we find the freedom to better understand the world and see what it can become.
If Mr. Mooney were to stand outside some of the excellent dance, drama and music schools of Prince George, he would not see “flutesnoots“ but hope-filled, hard working youngsters from all backgrounds, pursuing their dreams of excellence.
A few of these may even come back to our city someday and be featured on stage at the centre we all need -- particularly those who seem to have such a limited understanding of and exposure to the purposes and significance of the performance arts.
Norman Dale
Prince George
