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“When you speak about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s similar to talking about a queen,” states the choreographer. Referred to as Mama Africa, Makeba additionally spent time in New York with jazz greats like prominent artists. Beginning as a teenager sent to work to provide for her relatives in the city, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then the country’s representative to the UN. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This remarkable life and legacy motivate the choreographer’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its British debut.

The Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen combines dance, live music, and spoken word in a stage work that is not a simple biography but utilizes Makeba’s history, especially her story of exile: after relocating to New York in the year, Makeba was barred from South Africa for 30 years due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was banned from the US after wedding Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, some festivity, some challenge – with the exceptional South African singer the performer leading bringing her music to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar venue for locally made drinks and lively conversation, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Her parent the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was a newborn. Unable to pay the penalty, Christina was incarcerated for six months, taking her infant with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the details Seutin discovered when researching her story. “So many stories!” exclaims she, when they met in the city after a performance. Her father is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before relocating to study and work in the UK, where she founded her dance group the ensemble. Her South African mother would perform Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and move along in the home.

Songs of freedom … the artist performs at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was always asking for Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” she recalls. “I had so much time to pass at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in 1990, after the release of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the era), she discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that her child Bongi passed away in labor in 1985, and that due to her exile she could not attend her own mother’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you look at their achievements and you overlook that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” says the choreographer.

Creation and Themes

These reflections went into the creation of the show (premiered in the city in 2023). Fortunately, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the concept for the work was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, Seutin highlights threads of Makeba’s biography like memories, and nods more generally to the theme of uprooting and loss nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the show, she had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented performers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the players on the platform. Her dance composition includes various forms of dance she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including street styles like the form.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

She was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast didn’t already know about the singer. (She passed away in the year after having a cardiac event on stage in Italy.) Why should new audiences discover Mama Africa? “I think she would motivate young people to stand for what they believe in, expressing honesty,” says the choreographer. “But she accomplished this very gracefully. She’d say something meaningful and then sing a beautiful song.” She wanted to take the similar method in this work. “Audiences observe movement and listen to beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but mixed with strong messages and instances that resonate. That’s what I admire about Miriam. Because if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They retreat. But she achieved it in a way that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be graced by her ability.”

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