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“When you speak about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s similar to talking about a royal figure,” explains the choreographer. Referred to as Mama Africa, Makeba additionally associated in New York with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a teenager dispatched to labor to support her family in Johannesburg, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s official delegate to the UN. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. Her rich story and impact motivate Seutin’s new production, the performance, set for its British debut.

The Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show combines movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that isn’t a simple biography but draws on Makeba’s history, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to New York in the year, Makeba was prohibited from South Africa for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was banned from the US after marrying Black Panther activist her spouse. The show is like a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, part celebration, some challenge – with the exceptional vocalist the performer at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial venue for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, usually managed by a host. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a proprietress who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the penalty, Christina went to prison for half a year, taking her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life began – just one of the details Seutin learned when studying her story. “Numerous tales!” exclaims she, when we meet in the city after a performance. Her parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before relocating to learn and labor in the UK, where she established her company the ensemble. Her South African mother would sing her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a child, and move along in the living room.

Melodies of liberation … the artist sings at Wembley Stadium in the year.

A ten years back, her parent had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I stopped working for three months to look after her and she was constantly asking for the singer. It delighted her when we were singing together,” she recalls. “There was ample time to pass at the facility so I started researching.” In addition to learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in the year, after the release of the leader (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the era), she discovered that Makeba 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 be present at her own mother’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you focus on their success and you overlook that they are struggling like everyone,” states Seutin.

Creation and Themes

All these thoughts contributed to the making of the production (first staged in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was successful, but the idea for the work was to honor “death, life and mourning”. In this context, Seutin pulls out elements of her life story like flashbacks, and nods more generally to the idea of uprooting and loss nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of characters connected to Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s local drink, the skilled performers appear possessed by beat, in synthesis with the players on the platform. Her choreography includes various forms of movement 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.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the cast didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a cardiac event on stage in the country.) Why should new audiences discover the legend? “I think she would inspire young people to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” remarks the choreographer. “However she did it very gracefully. She’d say something meaningful and then perform a lovely melody.” She aimed to take the same approach in this work. “Audiences observe movement and listen to beautiful songs, an element of enjoyment, but mixed with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. That’s what I admire about her. Since if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. But she achieved it in a manner that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

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