The life of a soldier is not easy when it comes to guarding borders, especially when the neighbouring country is North Korea. The leadership of Kim Jong Un has isolated the county from the world. The authoritarian regime has made life so difficult for its citizens that many of them are looking for ways to escape the country.

For South Korean soldiers, this means not just patrolling the border between the two countries, but constantly looking out for North Koreans. But it’s not just a fenced wire that separates the Korean countries, it is a 160-km stretch of land. Known as the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ), this no man’s land serves as the buffer zone. The DMZ was built at the end of the Korean War in 1953, and since then, The New York Times has reported, nearly 30,000 people from North Korea have defected to the South.

South Korean soldiers have found a creative way to deal with the stress. They are trying to balance the act with ballet classes. This video gives a sneak peek into the lives of 15 South Korean soldiers who have started to gracefully (and with much difficulty) do full splits. Ballet is no easy task. “It requires a great amount of physical strength and is very good for strengthening muscle, increasing flexibility, and correcting posture," says one of the soldiers.

They are taught each week by a ballerina from the Korean National Ballet under a programme that began in 2015 and has already included a performance of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. According to Reuters, the 15 soldiers plan to stage their own ballet performance at the end of the year.