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“If you talk about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s similar to talking about a royal figure,” states the choreographer. Referred to as Mama Africa, the iconic artist additionally spent time in New York with jazz greats like prominent artists. Starting as a young person 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 outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was the wife to a activist. Her remarkable story and impact inspire Seutin’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its UK premiere.

A Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges dance, live music, and spoken word in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but utilizes her past, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to New York in the year, she was barred from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was banned from the United States after wedding activist her spouse. The performance resembles a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, some festivity, part provocation – with a fabulous South African singer Tutu Puoane leading reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … the production.

In the country, a shebeen is an unofficial venue for locally made drinks and lively conversation, often managed by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a proprietress who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the fine, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, taking her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life started – just one of the things Seutin learned when researching Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” exclaims Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s parent is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before moving to learn and labor in the UK, where she established her dance group Vocab Dance. Her parent would perform Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a youngster, and dance to them in the living room.

Songs of freedom … Miriam Makeba sings at the venue in the year.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in hospital in London. “I paused my career for three months to look after her and she was constantly asking for Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” she recalls. “There was ample time to kill at the facility so I began investigating.” As well as reading about her victorious homecoming to South Africa in 1990, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the era), Seutin found that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi passed away in childbirth in the year, and that due to her banishment she could not attend her parent’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you look at their achievements and you forget that they are struggling like everyone,” states Seutin.

Creation and Concepts

These reflections went into the making of the production (premiered in the city in 2023). Fortunately, her parent’s treatment was effective, but the idea for the piece was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, Seutin highlights elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and nods more broadly to the theme of uprooting and loss nowadays. Although it’s not overt in the performance, she had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “And we gather as these other selves of personas linked with the icon to greet this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in the show.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s local drink, the skilled performers appear taken over by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on stage. Her choreography incorporates multiple styles of dance she has learned over the time, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, 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 were unaware about the artist. (She passed away in 2008 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, expressing honesty,” remarks Seutin. “But she did it very elegantly. She’d say something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin aimed to take the similar method in this production. “We see dancing and hear melodies, an element of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. This is what I respect about Miriam. Since if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she achieved it in a manner that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

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