‘Let’s play,” commands the choreographer playfully. With that, Bafikile Sedibe enters the Dance Factory stage bearing on her back a giant wooden crucifix. She is not crushed by this religious symbol of sacrifice, suffering and death. Instead, in an experimental series of upright and floor movements, the dancer flirts with it, seduces it.

“Make love to the cross, Baffie,” was the original instruction.

Choreographic task completed, a delighted Dada Masilo jumps into the rehearsal space to work on variations which could extend and enhance this scene in her latest creation, Death and the Maidens, which premieres at Dance Umbrella in March.

Before that, her working year, which entails extensive travelling with the international debut of her African Swan Lake and with William Kentridge in Refuse the Hour, starts at Denison University, in Granville, Ohio.

In 2010 the dance department’s Dr Gil Wright Miller spotted the South African dance maker in her Swan Lake at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown.

An invitation followed from this Christian college to teach from February 1 to 10 and perform in the Swasey Chapel on February 3. With the blanket title of Death and the Maidens (not the 40-minute work she is creating in Joburg), this recital features solos and duets from her repertory. They are: The World, My Butt and Other Big Round Things (2007), Romeo and Juliet (2008), Carmen (2009), Swan Lake (2010) and her acclaimed 2011 solo, The Bitter End of Rosemary to original music by Philip Miller.

In Ohio, joined in this 90-minute concert by Lulu Mlangeni (courtesy of Vuyani Dance Theatre), Rosemary will not be performed in the nude as it was in Joburg, Cape Town, Durban and in the famous Bouffes du Nord, in Paris, nor will the Dying Dying Dead/Swan Lake excerpt be bare-breasted.

The choreographer doesn’t consider this a compromise, but a way to share her point of view across preconceptions and geographical borders.

The 26-year-old Masilo first appeared in the US, in designer Diane von Furstenberg’s New York studio, when she was 16, performing Invoking the First, a confrontational solo by Gregory Maqoma.

In a quick rehearsal break chat, Masilo is excited about her first formal residency, but her Dance Umbrella commission looms larger.

Had she ever seen Robert North’s classic modern dance work Death and the Maiden, a jewel of the Pact Dance Company’s rep?

Better yet, she danced in it with Tshwane Dance Theatre in 2007.

“I fell in love with Schubert’s music, but I didn’t like that Death is represented by a man and that a woman dies – again!”

Masilo soon realised she needed a protagonist to drive her message and aesthetic engineering. Enter Nicho Aphane, who has been dancing with her at the Factory since they were both 14 years old.

They are both graduates of Parts in Brussels and last year were in PJ Sabbagha’s Forgotten Angle Collaborative where he remains.

On the rehearsal floor, this male character teeters between the mortal and the divine. At one point he is constantly body-tackled by viragos in killer high heels. But he is not complaining. He catches his battered breath and soldiers on.

Masilo is adamant that while she takes issue with aspects of formalised religion and man-made belief systems, she is not setting out to be sacrilegious: “I’ve found religion restrictive. I can’t say I’m not scared of offending, but this is my opinion. I respect other’s beliefs, but some things niggle me.” Pause. “But people are spiritual beings.”

That very quality just happens to infuse various gestures, steps and phrases in the petite provocateur’s hatching choreographic vision.

• Dada Masilo’s Death and the Maidens is at Dance Umbrella (Dance Factory), on March 3 at 7pm and March 4 at 2pm then in Cape Town for the Infecting the City festival. Masilo is joined by Tshwane Dance Theatre’s Laura Cameron, Liyabuya Gongo, Ipeleng Merafe and Kristin Wilson; FATC’s Nicholas Aphane and freelancer Bafikile Sedibe.

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