Dancing around the horrors of war

TOPSHOT - Pupils dance and listen to instructions during a ballet class conducted by Jo-Anne Wyngaard (R) in Alexandra near Johannesburg on March 19, 2024. Jo-Anne Wyngaard, ballet instructor for Joburg Ballet, conducts classes for children of different ages, skill and social backgrounds in Alexandra, Soweto and in Johannesburg, in hopes of training a new generation of professional dancers to compete at international level. (Photo by EMMANUEL CROSET / AFP)

IN a dance studio that doubles as a bomb shelter in northeast Ukraine, the little girls in pink tutus prance in like gusts of air.

Timed to classical music, these nine-year-olds jump and glide. Occasionally, they misbehave, prompting a curt rebuke from Marina Altukhova, their instructor.