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A Chechen children's dance ensemble. This group of 28 Chechen children aged 6-16 perform amazingly energetic dances including acrobatics and sword-throwing to live music performed by six musicians. Chechens have survived two wars since the breakup of the Soviet Union. Many thousands of people have lived through terrible violence and chaos. Though the most recent war in the region is officially over, people are still recovering from this extended period of conflict. Children were often turned into refugees and lived in tent camps or crowded accommodation, had their schooling stopped and lived in a state of constant uncertainty about what would happen to them and their parents. For this reason, veteran Chechen folk dancer Ramzan Akhmatov set up Daimohk (which means 'ancestral land' in Chechen) in 1999, just before the most recent war began in Chechnya. He wanted to give a generation of children surrounded by violence a positive creative focus, and an outlet for emotional self-expression. Daimohk is completely non-political. The children feel a great responsibility as cultural ambassadors to a war-torn region and their discipline and maturity is very striking. Rehearsals take place in a disused sports hall in Grozny though thanks to money raised on previous tours, a new dance hall has been started and is now nearly finished. Daimohk regularly take part in high-profile dance competitions in Russia. Their participation in such events plays an important role in the vital reconciliation process between Chechens and Russians, whose relations have been severely damaged after many years of conflict. The children of Daimohk show the human face of Chechens, which helps to deconstruct the stereotype of Chechen fighters that remains in the minds of many Russians. Ramzan Akhmadov, who has recently been made a deputy culture minister in Chechnya, will bring the ensemble to the Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales, to two UK schools, and to Sadler’s Wells theatre in Islington. The ensemble are travelling to the UK by coach from Chechnya.