The South African choir that performed for Queen Victoria

An unearthed cache of century-old photographs of a South African choir that had performed successful Victorian Britain inspired a choreographer to reimagine what they went done arsenic they toured the country.

Gregory Maqoma remembers going into his favourite abstraction successful the Apartheid Museum successful South Africa's main city, Johannesburg, 5 years ago.

It is simply a country successful the circular - with lone 1 mode successful and retired and mildly curving walls that, helium says, fills him with a consciousness of serenity and privacy.

The South African choreographer was drawn to the centre of the country by the dependable of euphony and singing voices.

It was a dependable installation by composers Thuthuka Sibisi and Philip Miller. They had worked with modern singers to reinterpret the performances of a 19th Century South African choir - based connected songs listed connected a surviving performance programme.

Captivated, Maqoma danced for 40 minutes - earlier helium sensed different presence.

Looking down connected him from astir the country was a bid of 20 photographic portraits of the members of the archetypal choir, a radical of young, achromatic intellectuals who had toured England, Scotland and Ireland betwixt 1891 and 1893 nether the sanction of the African Native Choir.

"The strength of however they were looking astatine maine dancing made maine commencement asking questions astir 'the gaze' - however we are looking astatine each different and however radical had looked astatine them astatine the time," Maqoma says.

The photographs were taken by the London Stereoscopic Company, but they had laid unseen for implicit 100 years until 2014.

Autograph ABP - a London assemblage that was researching the beingness of achromatic radical successful Britain earlier 1948 - unearthed the archetypal solid plates wrapped successful parchment insubstantial successful the Hulton Archives successful London, present portion of Getty Images.

There are much than 30 idiosyncratic and radical photographs of 16 choir members - 7 women and 7 men and 2 young choir boys.

Some images are expressive close-ups, immoderate are playful - particularly with the 2 young boys, Albert Jonas and John Xiniwe.

In 1 photograph 1 of them relaxes, smiling, successful beforehand of the camera portion the different stands down it posing arsenic the photographer.

But astir of the photographs conform to Victorian stereotypes and expectations of radical from Africa arsenic "traditional" and "tribal".

In 1 radical photo, the choir are wrapped successful carnal skins, immoderate with feather and bead headdresses.

And they person been seated successful beforehand of a tiger tegument - contempt determination being nary tigers anyplace successful Africa and contempt the choir members coming from municipality areas specified arsenic Kimberley, and having been educated astatine missions including Lovedale successful what is present the Eastern Cape.

"That tiger - well, that was conscionable precise odd," Maqoma says.

His archetypal brushwood with the portraits besides sparked a feeling successful him that helium was the "carrier of their spirits".

"I wanted to reply truthful galore questions: what happened to them travelling from South Africa by vessel to get successful the UK, successful a state of the coloniser? How were they received?"

And truthful helium went to composer Sibisi, and unneurotic they created a portion of enactment that reimagines the carnal and spiritual travel of the African Choir.

Broken Chord is simply a 60-minute production, successful which Maqoma is the cardinal dancer alongside 4 soloists and a chorus.

It is simply a highly physical, profoundly affectional performance, which combines Xhosa and modern creation styles, philharmonic harmonies from South Africa and Western classical traditions, English and Xhosa languages on with atmospheric sounds and smells.

On the look of it, the travel of the African Choir was a triumph.

One British newspaper, the Standard, described it successful 1891 arsenic a "unique performance, and the assemblage followed the assorted items successful the programme, immoderate of which were sung successful the autochthonal tongue, and others successful astir faultless English, with lukewarm tokens of involvement and approval".

Queen Victoria asked them to execute for her astatine Osborne House, the Royal residence connected the Isle of Wight, disconnected the southbound seashore of England.

But years aboriginal - successful a memoir of her life, including describing her enactment successful medicine and nursing - 1 of the singers, Katie Manye, recalled however aft that show connected 24 July, a granddaughter, accompanying the Queen, made a remark utilizing a derogatory word astir however she did not similar radical from Africa.

It was not an isolated experience.

Manye besides recounts however the choir members objected to the usage of different derogatory and contemptuous connection to picture them.

Her memoir says the circuit manager Mr Howells ignored their objections saying: "That's what you are - the English... volition beryllium funny to perceive you sing."

Overall, the travel was difficult.

They often had to question from municipality to municipality to perform, and dislikes and conflicts betwixt each different emerged.

There was besides a idiosyncratic tragedy. One of the women became large - and no-one other knew until the assemblage of her stillborn babe was recovered successful her trunk.

The choir was not paid the wealth they had been promised - and successful the extremity the singers were abandoned by the managers and near penniless successful a London hotel.

They were capable to instrumentality to South Africa due to the fact that a missionary nine raised funds for them.

Their communicative of homesickness, favoritism - but besides defiance, determination and dignity - is besides a overmuch broader story.

"Broken Chord benignant of morphed from being conscionable the communicative of the choir. It became astir the resonance to the now, to what we are navigating contiguous - astir race, astir migration, astir intolerance, astir the things that we are ever struggling about,"Maqoma says.

Maqoma embraced creation due to the fact that of those kinds of struggles - specifically the traumatic oppression of South Africa's apartheid system, which legalised radical discrimination.

He was "surrounded by particulate and fume and constabulary sirens" during the 1980s.

He grew up adjacent to a hostel that housed migrant workers from antithetic parts of South Africa who worked successful factories and mines.

At weekends, they would clasp accepted creation competitions - and Maqoma would beryllium determination among the cheering onlookers.

"I was fascinated by conscionable the sheer quality of movement. How it made maine hide astir the conditions that I was surviving in, the heaviness of what the state was going through."

Maqoma besides recalls seeing Michael Jackson connected a tiny black-and-white tv successful his Soweto location - awed by the powerfulness helium commanded by the tiny motion of dilatory removing his signature glove.

In 1990, erstwhile inactive a teenager, Maqoma got his archetypal large interruption and helium went connected to creation to immense acclaim each implicit the world.

He besides founded Vuyani Dance Theatre - Vuyani, which means joy, being his mediate name.

Some 132 years aboriginal Maqoma has followed successful the footsteps of the African Choir - coming to London to execute Broken Chord astatine 1 of the city's oldest theatres, Sadlers' Wells, successful what is his past dancing tour, which besides takes successful Paris, Amsterdam and immoderate cities successful the US.