Celebrated choreographer and dancer Maqoma – who choreographed Tree at the Young Vic – performs as a professional mourner inspired by the protagonist of Ways of Dying and Cion, novels by Zakes Mda. Joined by eight performers from Vuyani Dance Theatre, the company confronts a universe in which greed, power and religion lead so often to the normalisation of death and loss. The physical lament unfolds to Ravel’s Bolero, reinterpreted here through percussion and voice – the stirring harmonies sung live by four vocalists.

Maqoma, who sees art as a commentary on how human beings treat each other, created this soaring piece as a response to recent political events in his own country and globally. He performs here as part of Dance Umbrella, having worked on Tree and William Kentridge’s The Head and the Load at Tate.