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“Discussing about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s similar to talking about a royal figure,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, Makeba additionally spent time in New York with jazz greats like prominent artists. Beginning as a young person sent to work to support her family in the city, she eventually became a diplomat for Ghana, then the country’s official delegate to the UN. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was married to a Black Panther. This rich life and legacy inspire Seutin’s new production, the performance, set for its UK premiere.

A Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen merges movement, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a simple biography but utilizes her past, particularly her story of exile: after moving to the city in the year, she was barred from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was excluded from the US after marrying Black Panther activist her spouse. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, part celebration, some challenge – with the fabulous South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre bringing Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a shebeen is an unofficial gathering place for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother Christina was a shebeen queen who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the penalty, she was incarcerated for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey began – just one of the things Seutin learned when studying Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” says Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a performance. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she was raised there before relocating to study and work in the UK, where she founded her dance group Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would perform Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a child, and move along in the home.

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

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in medical care in the city. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was always asking for Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were singing together,” Seutin remembers. “I had so much time to pass at the hospital so I started researching.” As well as learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in 1990, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), she discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that her child the girl passed away in labor in 1985, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to be present at her own mother’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” states the choreographer.

Creation and Concepts

All these thoughts contributed to the creation of the production (premiered in the city in the year). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, she highlights elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more broadly to the theme of uprooting and loss nowadays. While it’s not overt in the show, she had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas connected to Miriam Makeba to greet this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in the show.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s local drink, the skilled dancers appear taken over by rhythm, in synthesis with the players on the platform. Seutin’s choreography incorporates various forms of dance she has absorbed over the years, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including street styles like krump.

Honoring strength … the creator.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast didn’t already know about the singer. (Makeba died in the year after having a cardiac event on the platform in the country.) Why should younger generations discover Mama Africa? “I think she would motivate young people to stand for what they believe in, speaking the truth,” remarks Seutin. “But she accomplished this very gracefully. She’d say something poignant and then perform a lovely melody.” She wanted to take the same approach in this production. “Audiences observe movement and listen to melodies, an aspect of enjoyment, but mixed with powerful ideas and instances that resonate. This is what I admire about her. Since if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They back away. But she did it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at London, the dates