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“When you speak about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s similar to talking about a sovereign,” states the choreographer. Known as Mama Africa, Makeba additionally spent time in New York with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Beginning as a young person sent to work to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she eventually served as an envoy for the nation, then Guinea’s official delegate to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was married to a Black Panther. Her rich life and legacy motivate Seutin’s new production, the performance, scheduled for its UK premiere.

The Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show combines dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that is not a simple biography but draws on Makeba’s history, especially her story of exile: after relocating 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 activist her spouse. The performance resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, some festivity, some challenge – with a fabulous vocalist Tutu Puoane at the centre bringing Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial venue for locally made drinks and animated discussions, often managed by a shebeen queen. Her parent Christina was a shebeen queen who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the fine, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, bringing her infant with her, which is how her eventful life began – just one of the details Seutin discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” exclaims Seutin, when we meet in the city after a performance. Seutin’s father is Belgian and she was raised there before relocating to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she founded her dance group the ensemble. Her South African mother would sing Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin 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 the illness and was in hospital in London. “I paused my career for a quarter to look after her and she was always requesting the singer. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” Seutin remembers. “There was ample time to kill at the facility so I started researching.” In addition to learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in the year, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), she discovered that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that her child the girl passed away in labor in the year, and that due to her banishment she hadn’t been able to be present at her own mother’s memorial. “You see people and you focus on their success and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” states the choreographer.

Creation and Concepts

These reflections went into the making of the show (premiered in the city in the year). Fortunately, her parent’s treatment was effective, but the idea for the work was to honor “death, life and mourning”. In this context, Seutin highlights elements of her life story like flashbacks, and references more generally to the theme of uprooting and loss today. Although it’s not explicit in the show, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “And we gather as these alter egos of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to welcome this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the skilled dancers appear possessed by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s choreography incorporates various forms of dance she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including street styles like krump.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the cast were unaware about the artist. (Makeba died in the year after having a heart attack on stage in Italy.) Why should younger generations discover the legend? “I think she would inspire the youth to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “However she accomplished this very gracefully. She expressed something poignant and then sing a lovely melody.” She aimed to take the similar method in this work. “Audiences observe dancing and hear melodies, an aspect of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. That’s what I admire about Miriam. Because if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They retreat. But she did it in a way that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be graced by her talent.”

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