Ukrainian student's love of dance recorded in music video

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Anastasiia
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Anastasiia Limarenko says her love of dancing helped her cope when her family fled Ukraine

A teenager from Ukraine says her love of dancing has helped her cope with leaving her country due to the war.

Anastasiia Limarenko fled with her mother and her sister about 18 months ago as her city of Kharkiv was targeted by Russia.

They settled in Telford, Shropshire, and the 16-year-old's dancing saw her school record her performance in a music video.

"When I came from Ukraine, I was dancing all the way," she said.

"Dancing helped me a lot, the moment I could forget everything and give myself to music."

The 16-year-old said when her family had made the journey from Ukraine to England, dancing had helped her cope.

"As soon as I came to the parts where it was safe, I went to fields with earphones on, music playing and I was just dancing," she said.

Image source, Telford Priory School
Image caption,

Telford Priory School saw Anastasiia's dancing and recorded her performance for a music video

Anastasiia started attending Telford Priory School and said it "was scary" at first as she did not know people and found English hard to understand.

But within a month, her love of dancing was spotted by music teacher Ben Millington who told her the school wanted to showcase it in a video.

"It was a unique experience for me, no-one ever did something for me like that and I absolutely love it," the teenager said.

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Having choreographed her own performance in her spare time at home, the school filmed her dancing while a band of students played music and sang.

Mr Millington told BBC Radio Shropshire they were all incredibly proud of Anastasiia and what she had achieved.

"When you just give yourself to music and you move, dance, explore and you just forget everything," the student added.

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