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“Discussing about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a royal figure,” explains the choreographer. Known as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist also spent time in New York with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a teenager dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in the city, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s official delegate to the UN. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. Her remarkable story and impact motivate Seutin’s new production, the performance, scheduled for its British debut.

A Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen merges dance, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a stage work that isn’t a simple biography but utilizes Makeba’s history, especially her story of exile: after relocating to the city in 1959, she was barred from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was banned from the United States after marrying Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance is like a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, some festivity, some challenge – with a exceptional vocalist Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a shebeen is an under-the-radar venue for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually presided over by a host. Her parent Christina was a shebeen queen who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the penalty, she was incarcerated for half a year, bringing her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life began – just one of the things the choreographer discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” exclaims Seutin, when they met in the city after a performance. Her parent is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before relocating to study and work in the UK, where she established her company the ensemble. Her South African mother would perform Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when she was a child, and move along in the home.

Melodies of liberation … Miriam Makeba sings at Wembley Stadium in the year.

A ten years back, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in London. “I stopped working for a quarter to look after her and she was constantly asking for Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” she remembers. “I had so much time to kill at the facility so I began investigating.” As well as learning of her victorious homecoming to South Africa in 1990, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a young lawyer in the era), Seutin discovered that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter the girl passed away in childbirth in the year, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to attend her own mother’s funeral. “You see people and you look at their achievements and you overlook that they are struggling like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Development and Themes

These reflections went into the making of the production (premiered in the city in the year). Fortunately, her parent’s therapy was effective, but the idea for the work was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, Seutin highlights elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more broadly to the idea of uprooting and loss nowadays. While it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of characters connected to the icon to greet this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in the show.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented dancers appear taken over by beat, in synthesis with the players on stage. Seutin’s dance composition includes various forms of dance she has learned over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

She was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast were unaware about the artist. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a heart attack on stage in the country.) Why should younger generations learn about Mama Africa? “In my view she would inspire young people to stand for what they are, speaking the truth,” remarks the choreographer. “But she accomplished this very gracefully. She’d say something meaningful and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin wanted to adopt the same approach in this production. “We see dancing and hear melodies, an element of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. This is what I respect about Miriam. Because if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They back away. Yet she did it in a manner that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is showing in the city, 22-24 October