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“If you talk about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a queen,” states the choreographer. Referred to as Mama Africa, Makeba also spent time in New York with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a teenager sent to work to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s official delegate to the United Nations. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was married to a Black Panther. Her rich life and legacy inspire the choreographer’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its UK premiere.

The Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show merges dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but utilizes Makeba’s history, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to the city in the year, she was barred from her homeland for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was banned from the United States after wedding Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance resembles a ceremonial tribute, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, part celebration, some challenge – with a fabulous vocalist the performer at the centre reviving her music to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar gathering place for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a proprietress who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was a newborn. Incapable of covering the fine, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey began – just one of the things Seutin discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” exclaims Seutin, when we meet in the city after a show. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to study and work in the UK, where she established her dance group the ensemble. Her South African mother would perform her music, such as the tunes, when she was a child, and dance to them in the living room.

Songs of freedom … the artist sings at Wembley Stadium in the year.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in hospital in the city. “I stopped working for a quarter to look after her and she was always requesting Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were singing together,” Seutin remembers. “I had so much time to kill at the facility so I started researching.” In addition to learning of her victorious homecoming to South Africa in the year, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a young lawyer in the 1950s), she discovered that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi 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 success and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” states Seutin.

Development and Themes

These reflections contributed to the creation of the show (first staged in the city in 2023). Fortunately, her parent’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the piece was to honor “death, life and mourning”. Within that, she pulls out threads of Makeba’s biography like memories, and nods more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the show, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “And we gather as these alter egos of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to welcome this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in the show.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s local drink, the multi-talented performers appear taken over by rhythm, in harmony with the players on the platform. Her choreography includes multiple styles of movement she has absorbed over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including street styles like krump.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

She was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group were unaware about the artist. (She passed away in the year after having a heart attack on the platform in the country.) Why should new audiences learn about Mama Africa? “I think she would inspire young people to stand for what they are, expressing honesty,” remarks the choreographer. “But she accomplished this very gracefully. She’d say something poignant and then sing a beautiful song.” She wanted to take the similar method in this production. “We see dancing and hear beautiful songs, an element of enjoyment, but mixed with strong messages and moments that resonate. That’s what I admire about Miriam. Since if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They back away. Yet she achieved it in a manner that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• The performance is at the city, 22-24 October