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“Discussing about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s similar to talking about a queen,” states Alesandra Seutin. Known as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally associated in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Starting as a teenager sent to work to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she later served as an envoy for the nation, then Guinea’s official delegate to the United Nations. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was married to a activist. Her rich life and legacy inspire the choreographer’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its British debut.

The Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show merges dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that isn’t a simple biography but draws on her past, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to New York in the year, Makeba was prohibited from her homeland for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after wedding activist Stokely Carmichael. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – some praise, part celebration, part provocation – with a fabulous South African singer Tutu Puoane leading bringing Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar venue for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother Christina was a shebeen queen who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was a newborn. Incapable of covering the fine, she was incarcerated for half a year, bringing her infant with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the things Seutin discovered when researching her story. “So many stories!” exclaims Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a performance. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before moving to study and work in the UK, where she established her dance group Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would perform her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a youngster, and move along in the living room.

Melodies of liberation … Miriam Makeba performs at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

A decade ago, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for three months to look after her and she was constantly asking for Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were singing together,” Seutin remembers. “There was ample time to kill at the facility so I began investigating.” As well as reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in 1990, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the era), she discovered that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that her child the girl passed away in labor in 1985, 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 focus on their achievements and you forget that they are facing challenges like everyone,” states Seutin.

Creation and Concepts

These reflections went into the creation of the production (first staged in the city in the year). Fortunately, her parent’s therapy was effective, but the concept for the work was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, Seutin highlights threads of her life story like memories, and nods more broadly to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. While it’s not explicit in the performance, she had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas connected to the icon to welcome this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s home-brew, the multi-talented dancers appear possessed by beat, in harmony with the musicians on the platform. Seutin’s dance composition includes various forms 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 the form.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group didn’t already know about the singer. (She died in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in the country.) Why should new audiences discover Mama Africa? “In my view she would inspire young people to advocate what they are, expressing honesty,” remarks the choreographer. “But she accomplished this very elegantly. She expressed something meaningful and then perform a lovely melody.” Seutin aimed to take the same approach in this production. “We see movement and listen to beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but intertwined with strong messages and instances that hit. This is what I admire about her. Because if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. But she achieved it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

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