Award-winning New York City Ballet soloist Georgina Pazcoguin 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.
... [a] witty, sobering, hell-raising memoir ... She exposes more turmoil at New York City Ballet than any fictional ballet melodrama could hope to match. Good luck trying to look away while she eviscerates the institution ... Pazcoguin attests to every suspicion you may harbor about ballet’s underbelly. The author has experienced them all ... There are enough real-life crises in this brisk, often laugh-out-loud tell-all to light the imagination of any cable TV script writer. But with her string of criticisms and even in her crazy-funny asides, Pazcoguin has a serious point to make about the ballet world ... Pazcoguin is not merely out for blood. It’s clear that she’s passionate about her art and devoted to the dancer’s life, no matter the late nights, early mornings and utter absence of things like dinner plans and weekends. Her outrage over the misbehavior is nuanced, not shrill, and she comes clean about what she sees as her own complicity and mistakes ... It's a corker.
[A] page-turner of a memoir ... not timid ... She didn’t leave out the painful stories ... The book—laced with expletives—is not without humor ... As much as it seems like an examination of her workplace, Pazcoguin sees Swan Dive as a deep look at herself—as a person and as an artist.
In her brisk, spirited debut memoir, the author recounts her experiences in the competitive, hierarchical ballet world ... A lively chronicle of dedication and joy.