SWAN LAKE
AN IRISH BALLET
by
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SWAN LAKE is a true drama played upon an Irish lake in the county of Sligo, along the Atlantic coastline. In April 2013, my dear friend, princess ODETTE, had just started nesting on an island, when torrential rain lasting several days flooded the entire lake and the island. Concerned, I was watching the water levels rise, realizing the danger for ODETTE and her nest, which was already nearly underwater and I decided to come to her aid. ODETTE was desperately trying to raise the edges of her nest, in an icy cold rainstorm with gale force winds and waves as high as on the ocean. A hopeless situation. The flood already covered the island and it was clear that the nest with its eggs would sink under water very soon...I decided to swim out to the sunken nest and try to help save her eggs...the very last chance to save the eggs....ODETTE had given up and was crying. I talked to ODETTE and explained that I wanted to help save the eggs. She was brave, allowed me to stroke her beautiful white plumage and watched as I took her nine precious green eggs into my fishing net. I promised to return with her cygnets if I could hatch them at home and I started to cry. I remember the hot tears running down my cold skin. It was like the fairy-tale: SWAN LAKE filled with the tears of ODETTE's parents when the tragic magic spell transformed her into a swan. I was falling irrevocably in love.
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About the Book
SWAN LAKE is the true journey of ODETTE's Swan Family through tragedy into wonder, with the passion and devotion of Dr.Gunter Rau who braved the rescue of her eggs from the grasp of a terrible April storm. After a five week incubation period, two beautiful cygnets hatched from the batch of nine eggs he salvaged. Reintroduced to their mother ODETTE she eventually accepted them as her own. As soon as the swan father saw the little just hatched swans united with their mother, he immediately started fulfilling his role in nurturing them. From April to August 2013 the fate of this swan family was followed up weekly, documented and photographed to monitor the progress of the only two hatched cygnets, their safety being the main concern. They survived their endangered first days of life, until after 10 weeks they have grown into real little swans. The study and images of this swan family are unique in this field and of incomparable value.
About the Author
The mutual authorship is founded upon the admiration and love of swans, and fascination with the grace and beauty of these brave big birds. Dr. GUNTER RAU (Free University Berlin), originally a Forester, later University Lecturer and Museums Director. EDNA AUCAMP (University of Pretoria/South Africa), Scientist, lover of nature and beauty. The studies took place at an Irish lake in 2013, reviewed in relation to the most famous Tchaikovsky ballet SWAN LAKE (1876). The performance of the prima ballerina ODETTE is in fact a real swan with the dramatic fate to have only two cygnets saved for her final dance.