This is a fascinating and inspiring story by a genuine Positive Change creator, Maria Denner!

Maria runs a ballet school in Munich, Germany. Maria’s passion is not limited to teaching the art of ballet dancing. It extends into leading by example and giving her students things that positively change and impact their entire life!

The thousands of the ballet dancing students that have passed from her dancing school, proudly tell what these ballet lessons meant for them. And this is by far, beyond the limits of ballet dancing! The students (or old-timers who once were students of Maria but now adults and in the arena of life) talk about an experience that has molded their character. They talk of self-discipline, determination, ability to be calm and analytical when faced with difficulties in their lives. They also talk of regaining their self-confidence but also the ability to be humble. Or the strength of individuality combined with teamanship and being able to appreciate, care for, and work in harmony with the other members of a team.

Unfortunately, these things are not achieved routinely and stably in the current education systems across the world. To the contrary, an increasing number of countries, remove or reduce the delivery of arts or creative type lessons in their curriculum. Really disastrous.

In times such as this (with COVID 19 and all that this entailed), the people who survive are the people who have learned to imagine, to combine data and create new realities so they can evolve solutions in a volatile scene. If you are educated on a “normal set of circumstances” and this “normal” changes, unless you are able to imagine and create new approaches and new methods and maneuvers, you missed the boat.

Therefore, the work of educators and educating institutions such as Maria and her ballet school, – who insist and ensure that the students learn creativity, learn teamanship, learn discipline, learn to fight and persist, learn to live life and to move in life with grace, and learn to communicate with quality, – such educators and educating institutions are the only hope humanity has.

One of the many initiatives of Maria Denner was the: “Live Life – life must be lived in HERE and NOW and actively together.”

Seeing the disastrous trend of teenagers, spending scores of hours each day in front of screens, being hypnotized, and rather than living a real-life, living a fake one – the “screen life”, Maria took action!

She gathered 250 ballet students and about 100 parents and organized a large event to forward this message: “Live Life – life must be lived in HERE and NOW and actively together.”

Maria visited schools and invited them to participate in this campaign. The what happened in between and the resistance she encountered by some school principals, is a story that would be best described in a book or a movie. Yes, you heard well: there were people (“educators”) who tried to stop this initiative.  However, Maria persisted! Assisted by her many fans, the students, and the parents, she prevailed. The spectacular event took place with 250 dancers and 1,500 attendees and was praised by authorities and the press.

 But most importantly, the event gave a loud message and generated a positive change in the minds of many young people: Live the real-life- not the screen life!