“But calm, white calm, was born into a swan.”

https://www.reddit.com/user/Odette3/comments/sconzg/fysa_for_your_situational_awareness/

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Lyrical, inspiring, and affecting text paired with bright, appealing illustrations make Ready to Fly perfect for aspiring ballerinos everywhere who are ready to leap and to spread their wings!

Ready to Fly is the true story of Guren Nash, a half-French and half-Japanese boy who falls in love with ballet after seeing Swan Lake on TV. This nonfiction picture book is an excellent choice to share at home or in the classroom. 

Although there aren’t many ballet schools that will accept a boy like Guren in the 1950s, his local bookmobile provides another possibility. A librarian helps Guren find a book about ballet and the determined fourteen-year-old, with the help of his new books, starts teaching himself the basics of classical ballet.

🇫🇷🎉Happy Birthday 🎂 Johnny Yong Bosch! 🥳🎈🎊🎁😘

Jacey Gailliard as The Sugarplum Fairy

My mom pointed out that when Myshkin is partnering Aglaya or Nastasya, he never does any high lifts or holds them above his head. Most of what he does when dancing with others is to follow them and mirror what they're doing. The others, in turn, hold on to him and pull him along with them.

Rogozhin, on the other hand, flings Nastasya around, and he and his friends hold her above their heads and almost worship her as Myshkin tries to bring her back down to earth again.

While she does grasp on to Myshkin possessively, Nastasya is still comparatively gentle with him. She treats Rogozhin entirely differently, lifting him by the scruff of his shirt and *literally* (and to Myshkin's horror) walking all over him.

Aglaya is surrounded by an air of gentleness and light, but her expression is confident and stubborn. She puts her arms around Myshkin and refuses to let him leave, and she throws herself at Nastasya in much the same way that I'd imagine an angry swan doing so (maybe it was the Tchaikovsky score and the black-and-white costumes, but I couldn't help but think of Swan Lake at times).

As per the introduction (which I could try to translate if anybody is interested!), the ballet is our window into Myshkin's memory as he sits there next to Rogozhin in the last scene of the novel. He is being hit with the horror of what just happened, as his mind races through everything that occurred leading up to that point.

Anastasia Trusova — “Through The Walls”, 2020