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“When you speak about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” states the choreographer. Referred to as Mama Africa, Makeba additionally spent time in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like prominent artists. Starting as a young person sent to work to support her family in Johannesburg, she eventually became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the UN. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was married to a activist. This remarkable story and impact inspire Seutin’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its UK premiere.

The Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show merges dance, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that isn’t a simple biography but draws on her past, particularly her experience of banishment: after moving to New York in 1959, Makeba was barred from her homeland for 30 years due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was excluded from the United States after wedding Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The show resembles a ceremonial tribute, a reimagined memorial – some praise, some festivity, part provocation – with the fabulous South African singer Tutu Puoane leading reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar gathering place for locally made drinks and lively conversation, often presided over by a host. Her parent the matriarch was a proprietress who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the fine, she was incarcerated for six months, taking her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s remarkable journey started – just one of the details Seutin learned when researching her story. “Numerous tales!” says she, when they met in the city after a performance. Her parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to learn and labor in the UK, where she founded her dance group Vocab Dance. Her parent would perform Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when she was a child, and dance to them in the home.

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

A decade ago, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in the city. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was constantly asking for the singer. It delighted her when we were singing together,” she recalls. “I had so much time to pass at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to learning of her victorious homecoming to South Africa in 1990, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the 1950s), Seutin discovered that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her youth, that her child Bongi died in childbirth in the year, and that due to her exile she hadn’t been able to be present at her own mother’s funeral. “You see people and you look at their achievements and you overlook that they are facing challenges like everyone,” states the choreographer.

Development and Themes

All these thoughts contributed to the creation of the show (premiered in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the concept for the piece was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, Seutin pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more generally to the idea of displacement and dispossession today. Although it’s not overt in the show, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas linked with the icon to greet this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in the show.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the skilled performers appear taken over by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on stage. Her choreography incorporates multiple styles of dance she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group were unaware about the singer. (She passed away in 2008 after having a cardiac event on stage in Italy.) Why should new audiences learn about Mama Africa? “In my view she would motivate the youth to advocate what they believe in, speaking the truth,” remarks the choreographer. “But she did it very gracefully. She expressed something poignant and then sing a lovely melody.” Seutin wanted to adopt the similar method in this work. “We see dancing and listen to beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but mixed with strong messages and moments that resonate. That’s what I respect about Miriam. Because if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They back away. But she achieved it in a manner that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• The performance is showing in the city, 22-24 October