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“Discussing about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s similar to talking about a sovereign,” explains Alesandra Seutin. Called Mama Africa, Makeba additionally spent time in New York with jazz greats like prominent artists. Beginning as a young person sent to work to support her family in Johannesburg, she eventually became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This remarkable life and legacy inspire Seutin’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its British debut.

The Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but utilizes her past, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to the city in the year, she was barred from her homeland for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was excluded from the US after marrying activist Stokely Carmichael. The show resembles a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, some festivity, part provocation – with the exceptional South African singer the performer leading reviving her music to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an under-the-radar gathering place for locally made drinks and lively conversation, often presided over by a host. Her parent Christina was a shebeen queen who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was a newborn. Incapable of covering the penalty, she 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 learned when researching Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” says she, when they met in the city after a performance. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before moving to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she established her dance group the ensemble. Her parent would perform her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and dance to them in the home.

Songs of freedom … Miriam Makeba performs at the venue in 1988.

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in medical care in London. “I stopped working for three months to take care of her and she was always asking for the singer. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” she recalls. “There was ample time to pass at the facility so I began investigating.” As well as reading about her victorious homecoming to the nation in the year, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the era), Seutin discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter the girl passed away in labor in the year, and that due to her banishment she could not be present at her parent’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you look at their success and you overlook that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” states Seutin.

Creation and Concepts

These reflections contributed to the creation of the show (premiered in the city in the year). Thankfully, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the concept for the piece was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, Seutin pulls out threads of Makeba’s biography like memories, and nods more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. 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 other selves of personas linked with the icon to greet this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s local drink, the skilled dancers appear taken over by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on the platform. Her dance composition incorporates multiple styles of movement she has absorbed over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including street styles like krump.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the group didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba passed away in 2008 after having a heart attack on stage in the country.) Why should new audiences discover the legend? “I think she would motivate the youth to stand for what they believe in, expressing honesty,” says the choreographer. “However she did it very elegantly. She’d say something meaningful and then sing a beautiful song.” She wanted to adopt the same approach in this production. “We see movement and hear melodies, an aspect of enjoyment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that hit. This is what I admire about her. Because if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. 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.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is showing in London, the dates