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“Discussing about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s similar to talking about a sovereign,” remarks the choreographer. Known as the Empress of African Song, Makeba also associated in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a teenager sent to work to provide for her relatives in the city, she later served as an envoy for the nation, then the country’s official delegate to the United Nations. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. Her rich life and legacy motivate Seutin’s new production, the performance, scheduled for its UK premiere.

The Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen merges dance, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a theatrical piece that isn’t a simple biography but draws on Makeba’s history, especially her story of exile: after relocating to New York in the year, Makeba was prohibited from South Africa for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after wedding Black Panther activist her spouse. The show resembles a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, some festivity, part provocation – with the exceptional South African singer the performer at the centre reviving her music to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In the country, a shebeen is an unofficial gathering place for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually managed by a host. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a proprietress who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was a newborn. Incapable of covering the fine, she was incarcerated for six months, taking her baby with her, which is how her eventful life began – just one of the details Seutin learned when studying her story. “Numerous tales!” exclaims she, when we meet in Brussels after a show. Her father is Belgian and she was raised there before relocating to study and work in the UK, where she established her company the ensemble. Her South African mother would sing Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a child, and dance to them in the home.

Songs of freedom … Miriam Makeba performs at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

A decade ago, her parent had cancer and was in hospital in the city. “I paused my career for a quarter to take care of her and she was constantly asking for the singer. It delighted her when we were singing together,” Seutin recalls. “There was ample time to kill at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to learning of her victorious homecoming to South Africa in the year, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the era), she discovered that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her youth, that her child the girl passed away in labor in the year, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to attend her own mother’s memorial. “You see people and you look at their achievements and you forget that they are struggling like everyone,” says the choreographer.

Development and Concepts

These reflections went into the creation of the show (first staged in Brussels in the year). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was effective, but the concept for the piece was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, Seutin highlights threads of her life story like flashbacks, and references more generally to the idea of displacement and dispossession today. Although it’s not overt in the performance, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to greet this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the skilled performers appear possessed by beat, in harmony with the players on the platform. Seutin’s choreography includes multiple styles of movement she has absorbed over the years, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like the form.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba died in the year after having a cardiac event on stage in Italy.) Why should new audiences discover Mama Africa? “I think she would inspire young people to advocate what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “However she accomplished this very elegantly. She expressed something meaningful and then perform a lovely melody.” Seutin aimed to adopt the same approach in this work. “We see movement and listen to melodies, an aspect of entertainment, but mixed with powerful ideas and instances that hit. That’s what I admire about her. Since if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They retreat. Yet she did it in a manner that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

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