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“Discussing about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s similar to talking about a queen,” explains Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally spent time in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Starting as a young person sent to work to provide for her relatives in the city, she eventually served as an envoy for Ghana, then the country’s official delegate to the United Nations. An vocal anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a Black Panther. This rich life and legacy inspire the choreographer’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its UK premiere.

A Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show merges movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that isn’t a simple biography but utilizes her past, especially her experience of banishment: after relocating to the city in 1959, Makeba was barred from South Africa for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was excluded from the US after wedding Black Panther activist her spouse. The performance is like a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, some festivity, part provocation – with the fabulous South African singer the performer at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial venue for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, usually presided over by a shebeen queen. Her parent the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was 18 days old. Unable to pay the penalty, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the details the choreographer discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” says she, when we meet in Brussels after a performance. Her parent is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before relocating to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she founded her company Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would sing Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and move along in the home.

Melodies of liberation … the artist sings at the venue in the year.

A decade ago, her parent had the illness and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was constantly asking for Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were singing together,” she recalls. “There was ample time to kill at the facility so I started researching.” In addition to reading about her victorious homecoming to South Africa in the year, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the era), Seutin discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that her child the girl passed away in childbirth in 1985, and that because of her exile she hadn’t been able to attend her parent’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you look at their success and you forget that they are struggling like everyone,” states the choreographer.

Creation and Themes

These reflections contributed to the making of the show (premiered in the city in 2023). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was successful, but the concept for the piece was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. In this context, she highlights elements of her life story like memories, and references more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. While it’s not overt 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 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 dancers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s dance composition includes various forms of dance she has learned over the time, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

She was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the cast were unaware about the singer. (She passed away in the year after having a heart attack on stage in the country.) Why should new audiences discover Mama Africa? “In my view she would inspire young people to advocate what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says the choreographer. “But she accomplished this very elegantly. She’d say something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin aimed to adopt the same approach in this work. “Audiences observe dancing and listen to melodies, an element of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and instances that resonate. That’s what I respect about her. Because if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They retreat. But she achieved it in a manner that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at London, the dates