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“When you speak about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s akin to referring about a sovereign,” states Alesandra Seutin. Known as Mama Africa, the iconic artist additionally associated in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Starting as a young person dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in the city, she eventually became a diplomat for Ghana, then Guinea’s representative to the UN. An vocal anti-apartheid activist, she was the wife to a activist. This rich life and legacy motivate the choreographer’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its UK premiere.

The Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show merges dance, live music, and spoken word in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on Makeba’s history, especially her experience of banishment: after relocating to the city in the year, she was barred from her homeland for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was excluded from the US after marrying Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, part celebration, part provocation – with a exceptional vocalist Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving her music to vibrant life.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a shebeen is an under-the-radar gathering place for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Her parent the matriarch was a proprietress who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was 18 days old. Unable to pay the fine, she was incarcerated for six months, bringing her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the details Seutin discovered when studying her story. “So many stories!” says she, when we meet in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s father is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before relocating to study and work in the UK, where she established her dance group the ensemble. Her parent would perform her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and dance to them in the home.

Songs of freedom … Miriam Makeba sings at the venue in 1988.

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in hospital in London. “I stopped working for a quarter to look after her and she was always asking for the singer. She was so happy when we were singing together,” she recalls. “There was ample time to pass at the hospital so I began investigating.” As well as reading about her victorious homecoming to South Africa in the year, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the era), Seutin found that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter the girl passed away in labor in the year, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to be present at her own mother’s memorial. “You see people and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” states Seutin.

Development and Concepts

All these thoughts contributed to the making of the show (first staged in Brussels in the year). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was successful, but the concept for the piece was to honor “death, life and mourning”. In this context, she pulls out threads of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more broadly to the theme of uprooting and loss nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “And we gather as these other selves of personas connected to Miriam Makeba to welcome this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in the show.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s home-brew, the skilled performers appear possessed by beat, in synthesis with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s dance composition includes various forms of movement she has absorbed over the years, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including street styles like the form.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the artist. (Makeba passed away in the year after having a cardiac event on stage in Italy.) Why should younger generations learn about the legend? “In my view she would motivate young people to stand for what they believe in, speaking the truth,” remarks Seutin. “However she accomplished this very gracefully. She expressed something meaningful and then sing a beautiful song.” She aimed to adopt the same approach in this work. “We see movement and hear melodies, an element of enjoyment, but mixed with strong messages and instances that hit. This is what I admire about Miriam. Because if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They retreat. Yet she did it in a manner that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• The performance is showing in London, 22-24 October