By mid-afternoon, nine women have gathered around the dance pole at Flash Dancers, the only women-owned exotic dance club in Kharkiv.
Valerii Kseniya, Flash Dancers' co-owner, in an undated photograph from her career as a professional dancer (left), and in July 2023.
Iva Sidash for InsiderWhen Dana first joined Flash Dancers, Valeriya said, she was shy, silent, and not open to speaking with the team.
Iva Sidash for InsiderOver the past year, several soldiers who were regulars at Flash Dancers have been killed in the fighting.
Iva Sidash for InsiderThe evening at Flash Dancers could serve as a microcosm of Ukraine's tentative but determined return to normality.
Persons:
Valeriya Zavadskaya, Christina Aguilera's, bam, Iva Sidash, Valeriya, Cher, proprietorship, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Valeriya's, Valeriia Kseniya, Kseniya, Valerii Kseniya, —, Valeriya's lapdogs, Sara, Lady —, grimly, Dana, hasn't, they're, Gyrating, doesn't, they've, Yurii Tryfan, Yevgeny Prigozhin, Wagner, Tryfan, Lyuda, Maksyum, Pavlo, trundle, We've, Anna Conkling, Elle
Organizations:
showtime, Boys, Komsomol, league, Communist Party, Hustler, National University of Kharkiv, Valeriya, Flash Dancers, Monetary Fund
Locations:
Kharkiv, Ukraine's, Russian, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, bam, Soviet, South Korea, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Italy, Asia, Russia, Ukraine's Crimean, Moulin Rouge, Drohobych, Polish, USSR, Bakhmut, Kupyansk, Ukrainian, Kyiv, Berlin