YOUNG ADULT: What made you decide to start writing?
Robyn Bavati: Writing is something I’ve always enjoyed. It helps me work out what I think and feel. I grew up among people with strong opinions; it was hard to find out what I really felt, harder still to get my voice heard. One of the things I like about writing is that I can have my say.

YA: Tell us a little bit about your latest work. What is different about Dancing in the Dark?
RB: It’s a dance book that also deals with Jewish and religious themes. When it was first published in Australia in 2010, there were no contemporary YA dance books around. (Older ones, like Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, targeted slightly younger readers, and were a little dated.)
As for YA books with Jewish themes, those I’d come across all seemed to be Holocaust-related. Dancing in the Dark is different in that deals with cultural and religious issues, appealing both to dance lovers as well as readers interested in cultural/religious themes. It opens a window onto a little-known culture.

YA: Take us through a typical writing day for you.
RB: I’m a morning person, and I like to get up when everyone else is still asleep. I usually start the day with about twenty minutes of gentle exercise. I don’t bother getting dressed – one of the great advantages of being a writer is being able to laze around in your pajamas.
The amount of time I spend writing varies, though I generally start with a 45-minute stint before taking a break.
My best ideas come to me when I’m out walking, so I’ve developed the habit of taking my smart phone with me to record my thoughts. I don’t attempt to write unless I have a fair idea of where the story’s headed, and what I want to say. Generally, the further I am into the story, the more hours I spend writing each day.

YA: Not many young adult works deal directly with the religious world, Jewish or otherwise. Can you describe the path to getting this work published? What were the challenges? What was easy about it?
RB: It’s precisely because not many YA novels deal with religious issues that I thought it might be worth a shot. Getting the novel published in Australia was a lengthy though not difficult process, but publishing in North America was another story.
My Australian agent approached a number of US publishers, and though most of them enjoyed the story, they had various reasons for rejecting it. Some felt that, given its Jewish content and Australian setting, it would not be of interest to American readers. Others said they had just published (or were soon to publish) a different title with Jewish content, or with dance content, and wouldn’t publish another.
Given my agent’s limited US contacts, we looked for a US agent and eventually found one who loved the manuscript, and within about 6 months managed to place it with Flux.

YA: What were your specific influences for this book? Films, literature, other stories? RB: As a girl, I loved ballet, but though I was allowed a ‘taste’ of it, I wasn’t allowed to take dance seriously. My family was orthodox, so taking classes on Saturday, the Jewish Sabbath, was out of the question. Dancing in the Dark is, in a way, “the path not taken”. When I started writing it, I still had unresolved religious issues, and a need to explore them. I was also troubled by the divisive nature of religious extremism. Some other stories were influential in validating my belief that religious/cultural issues were worthy themes. The earliest and most important of these were books by Chaim Potok, the first I’d come across with Jewish protagonists and religious themes. Later, Looking for Alibrandi left an impression, as did the movie Billy Elliot. In fact, Dancing in the Dark has been described as ‘Looking for Alibrandi meets Billy Elliot’ or ‘Potok for girls.’

From the Book:

YA: If you could cast the Dream Film Adaptation of your work, who would you cast?  
RB: Hmm! Interesting question! I haven’t yet met the young dancer/actor who would play Ditty. I’m sure she’s out there.
I’d want the actors playing Jewish characters to look and sound authentic – I’ve seen movies where that’s not the case.

YA: If you hadn’t become an author, what path would your career have perhaps taken?
RB: I used to be a shiatsu therapist, and if I hadn’t become a writer I might have developed further skills in the healing arts – combined, perhaps, with some sort of counseling. I think the mind-body connection is crucial, and I like the idea of empowering people and helping to facilitate personal growth.

“He tossed her into the air as if she were weightless, and just for a moment she seemed suspended there, defying gravity. I couldn’t take my eyes off her. I knew what she was feeling. It was in every movement of every limb.

Here was a power I had never seen before, a kind of haunting loveliness I had never imagined. Seeing it made me long for something, I didn’t know what . . .“

Ditty was born to dance, but she was also born Jewish. When her strictly religious parents won’t let her take ballet lessons, Ditty starts to dance in secret. But for how long can she keep her two worlds apart? And at what cost?”