Sway (book)

Sway is a 2014 young adult fiction book by American author Kat Spears and her debut novel. The work was first published on 16 September 2014 through St. Martin's Griffin and is a modern take on the story of Cyrano de Bergerac.

Synopsis

Jesse "Sway" Alderman is a boy who can get you whatever you want, be it fake IDs, term papers, or a date with that one person that seems to be completely unattainable. As a result Jesse has developed a reputation for being calm, collected, and never letting anything deter him from successfully completing his transactions. This resolve is tested when Ken, the school's football captain, asks Jessie to help him win over Bridget, a good girl that has already rebuffed his advances. No one is more surprised than Jesse when he finds himself developing feelings for Bridget and he's even more shocked when he finds himself bonding with Bridget's brother Pete, as Jesse goes out of his way to avoid making any real friendships. Pete has cerebral palsy and as a result, has a limp, an asymmetrical face, a huge problem with low self-esteem, and a massive chip on his shoulder regarding what he sees as people (including his own sister) being nice to him only out of pity and his parents constantly comparing him to Bridget, who they view as practically perfect.

Sway (dance)

The term sway has a specific meaning in the technique of ballroom dances. Sway describes a dancer's body position in which the entire body gracefully deflects from the vertical. Entrance to and exit from this position are matters of fine technical detail and differ in various dance figures.

Sway may be an element of both stationary and moving dance figures. In moving figures, sway is commonly achieved as a natural result of body swing, but small amounts from other sources may be useful as an inflection. Sway comes primarily from an incline of the entire body, but a portion may also come from gradual bending of the trunk. It is customary to consider any bending of the trunk to occur more as a stretching of one side of the rib cage more than as a compression of the other side. This description helps to produce sway without the body line breaking awkwardly at the waist. Substantial abdominal strength may be needed to fully utilize this technique.

Possible angles of sway range from having the upper body substantially trailing the lower through a movement, to having the upper body a very small amount in advance. The purposes of sway are both better control of dance motion and aesthetics.

Sway (The Rolling Stones song)

"Sway" is a song by English rock 'n roll band The Rolling Stones from their 1971 album Sticky Fingers. It was also released as the b-side of the "Wild Horses" single in June 1971. This single was released in the US only. Initial pressings of the single contain an alternate take; later pressings include the album version instead.

Credited to Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, "Sway" is a slower blues song and was the first song recorded by the band at Stargroves.

The song features a bottleneck slide guitar solo during the bridge and a dramatic, virtuoso outro solo (both performed by Taylor). Rhythm guitar performed by Jagger was his first electric guitar performance on an album. The strings on the piece were arranged by Paul Buckmaster, who also worked on other songs from Sticky Fingers. Richards added his backing vocals but provided no guitar to the track. Pete Townshend, Billy Nichols and Ronnie Lane are believed to contribute backing vocals as well.

It was performed live for the first time in Columbus, Ohio, and then at many of the shows on the band's A Bigger Bang Tour in 2006.

Castanets

Castanets are a percussion instrument (idiophone), used in Kalo, Moorish,Ottoman, ancient Roman, Italian, Spanish, Sephardic, Swiss, and Portuguese music. The instrument consists of a pair of concave shells joined on one edge by a string. They are held in the hand and used to produce clicks for rhythmic accents or a ripping or rattling sound consisting of a rapid series of clicks. They are traditionally made of hardwood (chestnut; Spanish: castaño), although fibreglass is becoming increasingly popular.

In practice a player usually uses two pairs of castanets. One pair is held in each hand, with the string hooked over the thumb and the castanets resting on the palm with the fingers bent over to support the other side. Each pair will make a sound of a slightly different pitch.

The origins of the instrument are not known. The practice of clicking hand-held sticks together to accompany dancing is ancient, and was practised by both the Greeks and the Egyptians. In more modern times, the bones and spoons used in Minstrel show and jug band music can also be considered forms of the castanet.

Castanets (band)

Castanets is the musical project influenced by country, folk and experimental rock led by Ray Raposa who has been signed to Asthmatic Kitty records since 2004. He has released seven albums, most recently Decimation Blues in 2014. Additionally, he participated in a number of split 7" singles and an EP with the likes of Shapes and Sizes and Dirty Projectors. While Raposa is the only constant member of the band, his records and live performances feature a rotating cast of musicians. A San Diego native, Raposa has lived in Brooklyn and currently resides in Portland, Oregon.

Biography

Ray Raposa (b. 1981 Raymond Byron Magic Raposa) was born in Michigan City, Indiana. He moved to San Diego at the age of two and grew up in the Mission Beach area. At the age of 13 he and his mother moved to Baja where he was home-schooled for a year. Raposa left school at the age of 15 and traveled around North America and St. Croix doing odd-jobs. He worked as a surf instructor for some time. In his late teens, Raposa became involved in the free-jazz project Womb that recorded a self-titled album in 2001, which was released in 2004. In 2003 he appeared on the Liz Janes live EP Liz Janes And The Three Hour Choir.