Dancing into a Debut

Kalamazoo writer releases ballet-themed first novel

When Elyse Durham watched a YouTube video of a woman washing dishes, then breaking into dance in that everyday circumstance, she had no idea it would propel her into the world of ballet. Or that it would become the inspiration for her debut novel, Maya & Natasha, which will be released this month by Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.

“I have an unconventional path to ballet,” Durham, 36, says about her choice of topic. “Most people, if they have a background in dance, started when they were 6 years old, did The Nutcracker when they were 12, danced through high school, but that was not me. I was a tomboy. I didn’t want anything to do with ballet. I discovered ballet as an adult.”

Watching that YouTube video, Durham, who was living in Boston at the time, was moved. She saw the grace of the woman’s movements. She felt the magic in her own body blossom. She saw ballet in a new light, and she signed up for adult ballet classes. Then, wanting to learn more, she began to research the world of ballet.

“I did so much research into ballet that a couple years later I realized I was writing a book,” Durham says, laughing. “It wasn’t a hobby anymore. This had become an obsession.”

While dance was new to Durham, writing was not. She says she can’t remember a time when she didn’t see herself as a writer, even as a child, but it was the encouragement of a college professor that prompted her to consider writing as a serious career choice.

She is a graduate of the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College, in North Carolina. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Cincinnati Review, Wigleaf, Image and elsewhere, and she has received support from The Elizabeth George Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, and the Glen Arbor Arts Center.

Maya & Natasha takes place in 1958 in Leningrad, Russia, during the Soviet regime, and opens with a young Russian woman dying — by her own hand — moments after

giving birth to twin girls. The prima ballerina had learned she would never dance again and chose to end her own life rather than remain alive to raise her daughters.

Following in their absent mother’s dance steps, the twins have their own dreams of dancing in the Kirov Ballet, perhaps even touring with the company in America. The Kremlin, however, did not allow more than one family member to travel abroad due to fears that Russians would seek asylum in other countries. Keeping family members in Russia would usually ensure that travelers would not defect.

The conflict is set up between the 17-yearold sisters, since only one can be chosen to achieve her dance dreams. Their love for each other is infected by this harsh competition that could lead to a better life abroad.

In Maya & Natasha, Durham’s descriptions of Soviet Russia are so detailed and vivid that the reader might suspect the author spent time in that country. In fact, she did not.

Initially, when she decided she was indeed writing a novel set in Russia, she set up funding and worked out an itinerary with a travel agency to spend time there. “And then the pandemic happened,” Durham says with a sigh. “I kept waiting for that opportunity to come, and it never did. It never got to the point that it felt safe enough to travel abroad.

"I had already been researching for several years, but it was terrifying to write about life in Russia without spending any time there. I spent a lot of time reading memoirs — especially by Russian dancers who had lived under these circumstances — and academic works about the Cold War by people who have lived in Soviet Russia. I did a lot of interviews and talked to historians. That was as close as I could get to that time and that culture.”

Durham learned that while life in Soviet Russia was marked by deprivation and severe poverty, the arts were considered by

the Soviet government as its way to prove Russia's superiority to the outside world, so the arts were richly supported.

“One of the reasons I had to write this book after the experience of immersing myself in ballet, taking dance, coming to love it as an art form, was that it reminded me that having a physical body is good,” Durham says. “I think it can be easy to forget that, especially since so much of our lives today are digital. There’s something lost when we are not using our bodies in the way that people a hundred years ago might have. Having a body is a gift. It’s a beautiful thing.”

Support for her writing of the novel was strong at home. Durham is married to a Greek Orthodox priest, Father Bryce Vasilios Buffenbarger, who serves at the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Kalamazoo. The two met when they both had parts in a high school production of The Sound of Music. He played Captain von Trapp; she played one of the nuns.

“I really wanted the role of Liesl, but that would have been awkward — you can’t marry your father,” Durham says, laughing, as she recounts their roles in the musical.

“We reconnected when I was in college, and now we have been together for 14 years.”

Durham will be celebrating the release of her book on Feb. 18 (details in infobox).

Book Release Celebration

What: Elyse Durham will be joined by Kalamazoo College professor and author Andy Mozina to discuss the writing and development of her novel Maya & Natasha. The discussion will be followed by a Q&A, a brief reading, and an author signing.

When: 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Feb. 18.

Where: this is a bookstore, 3019 Oakland Drive.

How much: The event is free.

To register: Go to tinyurl.com/ durhamreading.