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Sustainability in Creative Industries: Integrating Design, Culture, and Urban Solutions—Volume 2 (Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation)
by Muhammad Nawaz Tunio Jorge Chica-Olmo Rafael Cano-Guervos Juan Gabriel González Morales Fabio Humberto Sepúlveda Murillo Marina Checa Olivas Ayman M. Zakaria EraqiThis book discusses the dynamic interplay of creativity and sustainability in the realm of design, offering a captivating exploration of innovative practices and their environmental impact. From biomimetic inspirations to biophilic designs, it unveils a spectrum of ideas in sustainable architecture. It further dives into inclusive and creative designs, social sustainability for the elderly amid the pandemic. This book casts a spotlight on the intricate synergy between preserving cultural heritage and fostering creative industries. It explores the profound significance of architectural lighting, the innovative reinterpretation of traditional motifs, and the enduring allure of heritage design within its chapters, creating an engaging and thought-provoking journey. Moreover, it ventures into the Integration of Creative Design in Urban Planning, presenting a futuristic outlook that seamlessly blends technology, sustainability, and human-centric solutions. Designed for a wide audience, including professionals, educators, and students, this book is a compelling resource for those passionate about the intersection of creativity and sustainability. It offers thought-provoking ideas, informative case studies, and a glimpse into the future of design that transcends boundaries.
Sustainable Compromises: A Yurt, a Straw Bale House, and Ecological Living (Our Sustainable Future)
by Alan BoyeLiving simply isn’t always simple. When Alan Boye first lived in sustainable housing, he was young, idealistic, and not much susceptible to compromise—until rattlesnakes, black widow spiders, and loneliness drove him out of the utilities-free yurt he’d built in New Mexico. Thirty-five years later, he decided to try again. This time, with an idealism tempered by experience and practical considerations, Boye and his wife constructed an off-the-grid, energy-efficient, straw bale house in Vermont. Sustainable Compromises chronicles these two remarkable attempts to live simply in two disparate American eras. Writing with hard-won authority and humor, Boye takes up the “how-to” practicalities of “building green,” from finances to nuts and bolts to strains on friends and family. With Walden as a historical and philosophical touchstone and his own experience as a practical guide, he also explores the ethical and environmental concerns that have framed such undertakings from Thoreau’s day to our own. A firsthand account of the pleasures and pitfalls of living simply, his book is a deeply informed and engaging reflection on what sustainability really means—in personal, communal, ethical, and environmental terms.
Sustainable Heritage Management - Design: Notions, Methods and Techniques
by Mar Loren-Méndez Marta García-Casasola Vladan Djokić Ana Nikezić Emanuela Sorbo Maria Philokyprou Konstantinos SakantamisThis book is coordinated by the UNESCO Chair on Modern Urban heritage CREhAR (Creative Research and Education on heritage Assessment and Regeneration), at the School of Architecture, Universidad de Sevilla (USE), institutions and their research groups which constitute a benchmark for research on cultural heritage and sustainability. Developed in the context of a European network of five universities, University of Belgrade, Serbia; University of Seville, Spain; IUAV University of Venice, Italy; University of Cyprus, Cyprus; and Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece- this consortium on heritage and sustainability have been collaborating closely, both as authors and editors. This book contributes to opening the way to managing heritage from a sustainable perspective, characterizing it from a holistic approach that includes environmental conservation and bioclimatic design. The central innovation of this contribution rests on combining the processes and methods of the heritage studies with those of the project within the field of Architecture and Urban Planning. The volume is structured into five sections: from the concepts, methods and tools, without forgetting the training in proper documental search and systematization, characterization and values identification, key to define criteria to design strategies and actions. Addressed in three transversal perspectives: education, practice, and research, it gives an integral and complete answer to students, practitioners, and researchers. Regarding its contribution to the literature in the field, this volume offers an international publication in the combined fields of heritage and sustainability, providing both conceptual and specific didactic contents and materials, for what is needed to deal with the complex process involved in heritage management. It looks for quality proceedings to project integrated actions on heritage assets, from a transdisciplinary perspective. This book promotes decision making on expert knowledge and cultural values; the proper use of methods, strategies and tools, and reaches agreements through participation of the different agents involved.
Sustainable Management of Historic Settlements in Asia: Role of Intangible Cultural Heritage (Sustainable Development Goals Series)
by Anjali Krishan Sharma Niyati JigyasuThe book addresses the contribution of Intangible Cultural Heritage to the sustainable management of historic cities and towns. Through the unique, diverse, and dynamic illustrations from Asia, it provides insights into the interrelationships of intangible and tangible cultural attributes and their significance on the sustainability of these areas. Historic cities and towns, large and small, along with their natural and man-made environments have a distinct identity and embody the values of traditional urban cultures. Evolved by tangible built forms and intangible elements, as cultural practices and expressions- meanings and values attributed to them, they are in a state of continuous change. The built environment acts as a ‘place’ or a ‘site’ where most of these expressions are shaped. These areas are significant for their social cohesion and economic stronghold that dates back over generations and centuries. Over the years, there have been many theoretical discussions about the interrelationships of tangible and intangible but is challenging to manage in practice, especially in historic urban areas. There is a lack of understanding of the complexity and pervasiveness of intangible values and their direct relationship with the physical structure of the town/city. This book strives to address the various challenges, emphasising the intricate relationships between the tangible and intangible aspects of historic cities in the Asian context.
Sustainable Tourism, Culture and Heritage Promotion: Development, Management and Connectivity (Advances in Science, Technology & Innovation)
by Uglješa Stankov Rui Alexandre Castanho Jorge Chica-Olmo Miroslav Vujičić Eliana MartinelliThis proceedings book explores future prospects of cultural, heritage, and religious tourism and how it can impact the socioeconomic complexity of a community and future developments. It includes chapters on contemporary digital age pilgrimage, digital interpretation as a management strategy, tourism in the era of digital communication, and the role of social media in conserving intangible cultural heritage. This book focuses on policies and mechanisms for heritage preservation. It includes cultural heritage tourism management, how the digitalization of data has impacted and further developed tourism, World Heritage classification in urban tourism destinations, cultural tourism products, and experiences. Moreover, it discusses the sustainable environment and geography in tourism. It covers topics such as ecotourism and rural sustainable development, heritage in socioeconomic sustainable development, and tourists' perceptions of tourism. Anotherpart of the book explores the social and economic impacts of tourism. It includes chapters on cycling tourism along the Elbe, residents' perceptions of the socioeconomic benefits of restaurants, architecture of historical mosques, tourism as a driver of soft power, tourists' perceptions of service quality, tourism during the Covid-19 pandemic, gastronomic narratives in tourism, and residents' perceptions of festivals. Also, it pinpoints the focus on user interaction-based development. It includes chapters on the role of community-led initiatives in heritage revitalization and addressing connectivity issues between historical and natural touristic heritage sites. These research papers provide valuable insights into the multidimensional nature of cultural sustainable tourism, covering a wide range of topics and offering diverse perspectives on its development, management, and impact.
Suvla Bay And After [Illustrated Edition]
by JuvenisIncludes Gallipoli Campaign Map and Illustrations Pack -71 photos and 31 maps of the campaign spanning the entire period of hostilities.A moving and wittily written account of an officer of the 5th Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers of the 10 (Irish Division) during their heroic but futile campaign on the Gallipoli Peninsula. He landed with his men of 'D' company into the storm of shot, shell and death at Suvla Bay and fought hard against the elements and the Turks. He was wounded in August 1915 and evacuated to Lemnos and thence back to England, where he wrote his recollections during his convalescence. As acclaimed expert Cyril Falls wrote of Juvenis' "...book is far ahead of the majority of disjointed accounts of warfare which appeared in those in those early days and has literary merit."
Suzanne
by Rhonda Mullins Anaïs Barbeau-LavaletteEighty-five years of art and history through the eyes of a woman who fled her family – as re-imagined by her granddaughter. Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette never knew her mother’s mother. Curious to understand why her grandmother, Suzanne, a sometime painter and poet associated with Les Automatistes, a movement of dissident artists that included Paul-Émile Borduas, abandoned her husband and young family, Barbeau-Lavalette hired a private detective to piece together Suzanne’s life. Suzanne, winner of the Prix des libraires du Québec and a bestseller in French, is a fictionalized account of Suzanne’s life over eighty-five years, from Montreal to New York to Brussels, from lover to lover, through an abortion, alcoholism, Buddhism, and an asylum. It takes readers through the Great Depression, Québec's Quiet Revolution, women’s liberation, and the American civil rights movement, offering a portrait of a volatile, fascinating woman on the margins of history. And it’s a granddaughter’s search for a past for herself, for understanding and forgiveness. ‘It’s about a nameless despair, an unbearable sadness. But it’s also a reflection on what it means to be a mother, and an artist. Most of all, it’s a magnificent novel.’ – Les Méconnus
Suzanne's Children: A Daring Rescue in Nazi Paris
by Anne NelsonA story of courage in the face of evil. The tense drama of Suzanne Spaak who risked and gave her life to save hundreds of Jewish children from deportation from Nazi Paris to Auschwitz. This is one of the untold stories of the Holocaust.Suzanne Spaak was born into the Belgian Catholic elite and married into the country’s leading political family. Her brother-in-law was the Foreign Minister and her husband Claude was a playwright and patron of the painter Renée Magritte. In Paris in the late 1930s her friendship with a Polish Jewish refugee led her to her life’s purpose. When France fell and the Nazis occupied Paris, she joined the Resistance. She used her fortune and social status to enlist allies among wealthy Parisians and church groups. Under the eyes of the Gestapo, Suzanne and women from the Jewish and Christian resistance groups “kidnapped” hundreds of Jewish children to save them from the gas chambers. In the final year of the Occupation Suzanne was caught in the Gestapo dragnet that was pursuing a Soviet agent she had aided. She was executed shortly before the liberation of Paris. Suzanne Spaak is honored in Israel as one of the Righteous Among Nations.
Suzuki: The Man and His Dream to Teach the Children of the World
by Eri HottaThe remarkable life of violinist and teacher Shinichi Suzuki, who pioneered an innovative but often-misunderstood philosophy of early childhood education—now known the world over as the Suzuki Method.The name Shinichi Suzuki is synonymous with early childhood musical education. By the time of his death in 1998, countless children around the world had been taught using his methods, with many more to follow. Yet Suzuki’s life and the evolution of his educational vision remain largely unexplored. A committed humanist, he was less interested in musical genius than in imparting to young people the skills and confidence to learn.Eri Hotta details Suzuki’s unconventional musical development and the emergence of his philosophy. She follows Suzuki from his youth working in his father’s Nagoya violin factory to his studies in interwar Berlin, the beginnings of his teaching career in 1930s Tokyo, and the steady flourishing of his practice at home and abroad after the Second World War. As Hotta shows, Suzuki’s aim was never to turn out disciplined prodigies but rather to create a world where all children have the chance to develop, musically and otherwise. Undergirding his pedagogy was an unflagging belief that talent, far from being an inborn quality, is cultivated through education. Moreover, Suzuki’s approach debunked myths of musical nationalism in the West, where many doubted that Asian performers could communicate the spirit of classical music rooted in Europe.Suzuki touched the world through a pedagogy founded on the conviction that all children possess tremendous capacity to learn. His story offers not only a fresh perspective on early childhood education but also a gateway to the fraught history of musical border-drawing and to the makings of a globally influential life in Japan’s tumultuous twentieth century.
Sven: My Story
by Sven-Göran ErikssonPerhaps no football manager has ever had his personal life dissected as thoroughly as Sven-Goran Eriksson. Yet the man that monopolized the British press during five tumultuous years as England manager remains an enigma. Who, precisely, is Sven?Here, in his no-holds-barred autobiography, the secretive Swede takes us on one of the wildest rides in world football. Populated by fake sheikhs, Italian lawyers, Nottingham outlaws and, of course, many of the biggest names in the game, his is a 40-year-long career that coincides with the evolution of football into a global multibillion-pound industry.Most of all, this is a surprisingly tender, sometimes heartbreaking, but never bitter account of a simple man with a most complicated story. A man who has reached a crossroads in his life, who until now has never stopped to ask himself the question: was it worth it?
Sven: My Story
by Sven-Göran ErikssonPerhaps no football manager has ever had his personal life dissected as thoroughly as Sven-Goran Eriksson. Yet the man that monopolized the British press during five tumultuous years as England manager remains an enigma. Who, precisely, is Sven? <p><p> Here, in his no-holds-barred autobiography, the secretive Swede takes us on one of the wildest rides in world football. Populated by fake sheikhs, Italian lawyers, Nottingham outlaws and, of course, many of the biggest names in the game, his is a 40-year-long career that coincides with the evolution of football into a global multibillion-pound industry. <p> Most of all, this is a surprisingly tender, sometimes heartbreaking, but never bitter account of a simple man with a most complicated story. A man who has reached a crossroads in his life, who until now has never stopped to ask himself the question: was it worth it?
Sven: My Story
by Sven-Göran ErikssonPerhaps no football manager has ever had his personal life dissected as thoroughly as Sven-Goran Eriksson. Yet the man that monopolized the British press during five tumultuous years as England manager remains an enigma. Who, precisely, is Sven?Here, in his no-holds-barred autobiography, the secretive Swede takes us on one of the wildest rides in world football. Populated by fake sheikhs, Italian lawyers, Nottingham outlaws and, of course, many of the biggest names in the game, his is a 40-year-long career that coincides with the evolution of football into a global multibillion-pound industry.Most of all, this is a surprisingly tender, sometimes heartbreaking, but never bitter account of a simple man with a most complicated story. A man who has reached a crossroads in his life, who until now has never stopped to ask himself the question: was it worth it?
Swagger: Super Bowls, Brass Balls, and Footballs—A Memoir
by Jimmy Johnson Dave HydeFrom FOX NFL Sunday analyst and legendary Hall of Fame head football coach Jimmy Johnson—the first to win both a college football championship and a Super Bowl—the long-awaited, intimate, no-regrets memoir recounting his extraordinary life and insightful lessons on winning, at every level.Hall of Fame football coach Jimmy Johnson&’s house isn&’t on the way to anything. Yet, his private sanctuary on the Florida Keys&’ Islamorada islands is a popular destination to which college and professional coaches, general managers, and team owners regularly trek to seek advice—how to build a positive team culture, draft elite players, balance work and family life, and lead a team to win. Why? Because Jimmy Johnson has done it all—rising through the college coaching ranks to lead the University of Miami Hurricanes to a national championship, winning two consecutive Super Bowls with the Dallas Cowboys, and handling public triumphs while dealing with private adversity. Now, in Swagger, written with veteran sports journalist Dave Hyde, Johnson shares a candid account of his life experiences that have turned him into a legend in the coaching world. From his early days on the college football fields at Louisiana Tech to his arrival as the Cowboys&’ coach in 1989, Swagger traces the history of Johnson&’s career, and his lifelong mission to win. His larger-than-life personality and hard-driving, tough-talking coaching style led him to become one of only six coaches in NFL history to win back-to-back Super Bowls. Swagger shows the behind-the-scenes details of his professional conflict with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and his personal revelations following his mother&’s death and his son&’s struggle with addiction. It reveals Johnson&’s formula for winning, including his criteria for identifying talent, his core beliefs, how he replaced legendary coaches like Tom Landry and Don Shula, coached stars from a young Troy Aikman to an aging Dan Marino, and established the ever-elusive sense of &“culture&” that every team leader hopes to achieve. More than a highlight reel, Swagger reveals the hard-won lessons Jimmy Johnson has learned both as a man and as a coach through a lifetime dedicated to excellence.
Swallow
by Mary CappelloThis is a book about a kind of cabinet of curiosities that is itself its own kind of cabinet of curiosities: beautiful, rare, eccentric, obsessional. One of the most popular attractions in the Mütter Museum, the world-famous medical museum in Philadelphia, is the Chevalier Jackson Foreign Body Collection: a beguiling set of drawers filled with thousands of items that had been swallowed or inhaled (both by accident and deliberately), including a crucifix, hundreds of safety pins, a toy goat, a padlock, and a "Perfect Attendance" pin.Mary Cappello uses Jackson's collection as a starting point for a lyrical, sympathetic exploration of swallowing-its meanings, its assumptions, its experiences, even its rhetoric. She restores the narratives, lives, and desires of the physician-artist Dr. Chevalier Jackson and his patients who haunt this uncanny collection and uncovers a history of racism and violence, of forced ingestion and "hysteria" (such as the woman who swallowed 26 open safety pins that interlocked in her stomach, along with a 4-meter length of string), of class and poverty that left children to bank their family's last quarters in their mouths (such as the boy whose father broke his arm when he failed to return from the hospital with the quarter he had swallowed). In Swallow, Cappello brings her original sensibility to bear on Jackson's 1938 autobiography as she highlights the achievements of this activist-inventor, probes his traumatic childhood, and brilliantly retells a life story rife with marvelous forms of rescue.As with Lawrence Weschler's Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders, in Swallow a collection of objects forms a surprising narrative that journeys deep into the nature of human experience. A literary and psychological exploration, the book seeks to understand rather than gawk at sword swallowers, women who lunched on hardware, and a boy who wasn't saved because he wasn't believed. Cappello invites us to enter the seat of human appetite, language, aggression, breath, and even knowledge-the human mouth-in an original and creative tour de force.
Swallow the Ocean: A Memoir
by Laura M. FlynnWhen Laura Flynn was a little girl, her beautiful, dynamic mother, Sally, was the center of her imagination. It wasn't long, however, before Sally's fun-loving side slowly and methodically became absorbed by madness. As Laura's parents divorced and her father struggled to gain custody, Sally's symptoms bloomed in earnest while Laura and her sisters united in flights of fancy of the sort their mother taught them so that they might deflect the danger threatening their fragile family.Set in 1970s San Francisco, Swallow the Ocean is redolent with place. In luminous prose, this memoir paints a most intimate portrait of what might have been a catastrophic childhood had Laura and her sisters not been resilient and determined enough to survive their environment even as they yearned to escape it.
Swallows, Amazons and Coots: A Reading of Arthur Ransome
by Julian LovelockIn 1929, Arthur Ransome (1884-1967), a journalist and war correspondent who was on the books of MI6, turned his hand to writing adventure stories for children. The result was Swallows and Amazons and eleven more wonderful books followed, spanning inpublication the turbulent years from 1930 to 1947. They changed the course of children's literature and have never been out of print since. In them, Ransome creates a world of escape so close to reality that it is utterly believable, a world in which things always turn out right in the end. Yet Swallows, Amazons and Coots shows that, to be properly appreciated today, the novels must be read as products of their era, inextricably bound up with Ransome's life and times as he bore witness to the end of Empire and the dark days of the Second World War. In the first critical book devoted wholly to the series, Julian Lovelock explores each novel in turn, offering an erudite assessment of Ransome's creative process and narrative technique, and highlighting his contradictory politics, his defence of rural England, and his reflections on colonialism and the place of women in society. Thus Lovelock demonstrates convincingly that, despite first appearances, the novels challenge as much as reinforce the pervading attitudes of their time.Written with a lightness of touch and enlivened by Ransome's own illustrations, Swallows, Amazons and Coots is both fresh and nostalgic. It will appeal to anyone who has enjoyed the world of Swallows and Amazons, and there is plenty here to challenge both the student and the Ransome enthusiast.
Swami Vivekananda
by Shri Swami Adhyatmanand Sarswatiસ્વામી વિવેકાનંદ એ નવજીવન દ્વારા પ્રકાશિત સંતવાણી ગ્રંથાવલિનું તૃતીય પુસ્તક છે. સંતવાણી ગ્રંથાવલિ એ ભારતના મહાનુભાવોના જીવન અને વિચારને વાચક સુધી પહોંચાડવાનો નવજીવન ટ્રસ્ટનો નમ્ર પ્રયાસ છે.
Swami Vivekananda: A Contemporary Reader
by Makarand R. ParanjapeSwami Vivekananda (1863–1902) popularised Vedanta in the West and reformed Hinduism in India. He also inspired the mass movement that made India a modern nation. In showcasing his life and work, this Reader balances the two main aspects of his life: the religious and the secular, the spiritual and the practical, the devotional and the rational. Included here are the most significant and representative texts from every major genre and phase — selections from his speeches, essays, letters, poems, translations, conversations, and interviews — arranged for easy reading and reference. With a scholarly Introduction highlighting his contemporary relevance, separate section introductions and a detailed biographical Chronology, this volume provides a rare insight into one of India’s greatest minds. This volume will interest scholars and students of modern Indian history, religion, literature, and philosophy as well as general readers.
Swami Vivekanandar
by Nemai Sadhan Bose Ka. ChellappanSwami Vivekanandar is a Tamil translation by Ka.Chellappan of Nemai Sadhan Bose’s Monograph in English.
Swami in a Strange Land: How Krishna Came to the West
by Joshua M. Greene“Master storyteller Joshua Greene reveals the true, thrilling adventure story of Bhaktivedanta Prabhupada, a modern-day spiritual giant.” —Sharon Gannon, author and cofounder of Jivamukti YogaIn 1965, a seventy-year-old man—soon to be known as Prabhupada—set sail from India to America with a few books in his bag, pennies in his pockets, and a message of love in his heart. He landed in New York at the peak of the revolutionary counterculture movement of the ’60s, and went on to spark a global spiritual renaissance that led to the creation of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), which has changed millions of lives. Through the depiction of Prabhupada as both an enlightened luminary and a personable, funny, and conscientious individual, Swami in a Strange Land shows why cultural icons such as George Harrison and Allen Ginsberg incorporated Prabhupada’s teachings into their lives, and why millions more around the globe embarked upon the path of bhakti yoga in his footsteps. Carefully researched, skillfully crafted, and extraordinarily intimate, this narrative follows Prabhupada as he rises from an anonymous monk to a world-renowned spiritual leader. Set in locations as far ranging as remote Himalayan caves and the gilded corridors of Paris’s City Hall, Swami in a Strange Land traces the rise of Eastern spirituality in the West—and in particular, the rise of yoga culture and vegetarianism and the concepts of karma and reincarnation. A remarkable journey into the deepest dimensions of the human experience, Swami in a Strange Land shows how one man with a dream can change the world.“[A] story of timeless love.” —Radhanath Swami, author of The Journey Home
Swamy Vivekanandara Jeevana Mattu Sandesha: ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ವಿವೇಕಾನಂದರ ಜೀವನ ಮತ್ತು ಸಂದೇಶ
by Swami Vivekananda Kendra Kannada Prakashana Mysoreಈ ಪುಸ್ತಕದಲ್ಲಿ ಸ್ವಾಮಿ ವಿವೇಕಾನಂದರ ಜೀವನ, ಅವರ ಉಪದೇಶಗಳು ಹಾಗೂ ಆಧ್ಯಾತ್ಮಿಕತೆ, ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ ಮತ್ತು ಸಮಾಜದ ಮೇಲಿನ ಅವರ ಅಪಾರ ಪರಿಣಾಮವನ್ನು ಸ್ಪಷ್ಟವಾಗಿ ವಿವರಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಅವರ ಆದರ್ಶಗಳು ಮತ್ತು ಚಿಂತನೆಗಳು ಇಂದಿನ ಪೀಳಿಗೆಗೆ ಪ್ರೇರಣೆಯ ಮೂಲವಾಗಿದ್ದು, ಈ ಕೃತಿಯು ಓದುಗರಿಗೆ ಆಧ್ಯಾತ್ಮಿಕ ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆ ಮತ್ತು ಸಾಮಾಜಿಕ ಜಾಗೃತಿಗೆ ದಾರಿ ತೋರಿಸುವ ಉದ್ದೇಶವನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿದೆ.
Swan
by Laurel Snyder Julie MorstadThe world is big.Anna is small.The snow is everywhere and all around.But one night . . .One night, her mother takes her to the ballet, and everything is changed. Anna finds a beauty inside herself that she cannot contain.So begins the journey of a girl who will one day grow up to be the most famous prima ballerina of all time, inspiring legions of dancers after her: the brave, the generous, the transcendently gifted Anna Pavlova. Beautiful, inspirational, and triumphant, Anna Pavlova's life is masterfully captured in this exquisite picture book.
Swan Dive: The Making of a Rogue Ballerina
by Georgina Pazcoguin"Don't expect just tulle and toe shoes. In this fascinating insider's tale, NYCB dancer Pazcoguin reveals her world. . . . A striking debut." —PeopleAward-winning New York City Ballet soloist Georgina Pazcoguin, aka the Rogue Ballerina, gives readers a backstage tour of the real world of elite ballet—the gritty, hilarious, sometimes shocking truth you don’t see from the orchestra circle.In this love letter to the art of dance and the sport that has been her livelihood, NYCB’s first Asian American female soloist Georgina Pazcoguin lays bare her unfiltered story of leaving small-town Pennsylvania for New York City and training amid the unique demands of being a hybrid professional athlete/artist, all before finishing high school. She pitches us into the fascinating, whirling shoes of dancers in one of the most revered ballet companies in the world with an unapologetic sense of humor about the cutthroat, survival-of-the-fittest mentality at NYCB. Some swan dives are literal: even in the ballet, there are plenty of face-plants, backstage fights, late-night parties, and raucous company bonding sessions.Rocked by scandal in the wake of the #MeToo movement, NYCB sits at an inflection point, inching toward progress in a strictly traditional culture, and Pazcoguin doesn’t shy away from ballet’s dark side. She continues to be one of the few dancers openly speaking up against the sexual harassment, mental abuse, and racism that in the past went unrecognized or was tacitly accepted as par for the course—all of which she has painfully experienced firsthand.Tying together Pazcoguin’s fight for equality in the ballet with her infectious and deeply moving passion for her craft, Swan Dive is a page-turning, one-of-a-kind account that guarantees you'll never view a ballerina or a ballet the same way again.
Swan: Portrait of a Majestic Bird, from Mythical Meanings to the Modern Day
by Dan KeelBook of the Month, Countryside magazine‘[this] fascinating new book… provides a detailed insight into the snow-white species’ Waterways WorldA wildlife writer and photographer’s celebration of the mute swan, Britain’s most iconic breed, exploring the bird’s significance across myth and history alongside vivid observations on its habits and habitats.The swan is both a lover and a fighter. A graceful angel and a clumsy oaf. Immortalized by artists over the ages yet misunderstood and threatened in the present day. The mute swan – with its orange beak and aura of stately silence – is the breed we know best in Britain.Dan Keel has been captivated by these birds since boyhood, studying their contrasting qualities over more than three decades. He’s spent countless hours documenting their power, beauty and vulnerability as a writer of nature journalism, as a wildlife photographer looking for the perfect shot, and as a pilot sharing the skies.In this labour of love, Dan speaks up for the mute, answering the essential questions about its nature and its future. Along the way, weaving his first-hand observations into the narrative, he shows us how swans have been portrayed in myth, art and culture for millennia, and how they have been venerated and imitated as well as harmed by humans.Does anybody still eat swan? Can a swan really break your arm? Does the Queen own them all? With an eye for the humour as well as the tragedy of the swan’s story, Dan lays out the facts, guides us to our lakes and riverbanks, and urges us to see these familiar creatures in a fresh light.
Swan: The Life and Dance of Anna Pavlova
by Laurel SnyderThe world is big.Anna is small.The snow is everywhere and all around.But one night . . .One night, her mother takes her to the ballet, and everything is changed. Anna finds a beauty inside herself that she cannot contain.So begins the journey of a girl who will one day grow up to be the most famous prima ballerina of all time, inspiring legions of dancers after her: the brave, the generous, the transcendently gifted Anna Pavlova. Beautiful, inspirational, and triumphant, Anna Pavlova's life is masterfully captured in this exquisite picture book.