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“When you speak about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a royal figure,” explains Alesandra Seutin. Known as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally associated in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a teenager sent to work to support her family in Johannesburg, she eventually became a diplomat for Ghana, then the country’s official delegate to the UN. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a activist. Her remarkable story and impact inspire Seutin’s new production, the performance, scheduled for its British debut.

A Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen merges dance, live music, and spoken word in a stage work that isn’t a simple biography but utilizes her past, particularly her story of exile: after moving to New York in 1959, Makeba was barred from South Africa for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after marrying activist Stokely Carmichael. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, some festivity, some challenge – with a fabulous South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving her music to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar gathering place for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Her parent Christina was a shebeen queen who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the penalty, she was incarcerated for six months, bringing her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s remarkable journey began – just one of the things the choreographer discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” says she, when they met in the city after a show. Her father is Belgian and she was raised there before moving to learn and labor in the UK, where she established her dance group the ensemble. Her South African mother would perform her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a child, and move along in the living room.

Songs of freedom … the artist performs at the venue in the year.

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I stopped working 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 remembers. “There was ample time to pass at the hospital so I began investigating.” As well as reading about her victorious homecoming to South Africa in 1990, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), she discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter the girl passed away in labor in the year, and that because of her exile she could not attend her own mother’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are facing challenges like everyone,” says the choreographer.

Creation and Themes

All these thoughts went into the creation of the production (premiered in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, her parent’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the work was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, she pulls out threads of her life story like flashbacks, and nods more broadly to the idea of uprooting and loss today. While it’s not overt in the performance, she had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas connected to Miriam Makeba to greet this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the multi-talented dancers appear possessed by beat, in harmony with the musicians on stage. Her dance composition includes multiple styles of dance she has absorbed over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like krump.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

She was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the group didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba died in the year after having a cardiac event on the platform in the country.) Why should younger generations discover the legend? “I think she would motivate the youth to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” remarks Seutin. “However she did it very gracefully. She’d say something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin wanted to adopt the similar method in this production. “Audiences observe dancing and listen to melodies, an aspect of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and instances that hit. This is what I admire about Miriam. Since if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They retreat. Yet 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 at London, 22-24 October