On Wednesday afternoons, after the final bell of the day, a cement-walled classroom in the impoverished Nairobi neighborhood of Kibera is transformed into a ballet studio. The room is cleared of its benches and desks. The dust and dirt on the floor is swept away. A group of about 20 girls wearing blue, pink and purple ballet clothes wait for Mike Wamaya, their instructor, to arrive with his boom box and good-natured personality. Then, with classical music in the air, the girls begin to dance.

Over the past 18 months Swedish photographer Fredrik Lerneryd, who is based in Nairobi, has joined Waymaya and the girls for about two dozen of their Wednesday ballet lessons.

At first the girls were shy, says 31-year-old