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“When you speak about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a queen,” explains Alesandra Seutin. Called the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally associated in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Starting as a teenager dispatched to labor to support her family in Johannesburg, she eventually served as an envoy for the nation, then the country’s representative to the UN. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. This remarkable life and legacy inspire the choreographer’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its British debut.

The Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen merges dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but utilizes Makeba’s history, particularly 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. Subsequently, she was banned from the US after wedding Black Panther activist her spouse. The performance is like a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, some festivity, some challenge – with a exceptional South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre bringing Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial gathering place for locally made drinks and lively conversation, often presided over by a host. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was 18 days old. Unable to pay the penalty, Christina went to prison for half a year, taking her infant with her, which is how her eventful life began – just one of the details the choreographer learned when researching Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” exclaims Seutin, when we meet in Brussels after a performance. Her father is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she established her company the ensemble. Her South African mother would perform Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a child, and dance to them in the home.

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

A ten years back, her parent had cancer and was in hospital in London. “I stopped working for three months to look after her and she was constantly requesting the singer. It delighted her when we were singing together,” she recalls. “I had so much time to kill at the facility so I began investigating.” In addition to learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in the year, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the era), Seutin found that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi passed away in labor in 1985, and that because of her exile she could not attend her own mother’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you look at their achievements and you forget that they are struggling like everyone,” states the choreographer.

Development and Themes

All these thoughts went into the making of the production (first staged in the city in 2023). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was effective, but the concept for the work was to honor “death, life and mourning”. In this context, Seutin pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and references more broadly to the idea of uprooting and loss nowadays. While it’s not explicit in the performance, she had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “And we gather as these other selves of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to welcome this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in the show.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s home-brew, the skilled dancers appear possessed by beat, in synthesis with the musicians on stage. Her choreography incorporates multiple styles of movement she has absorbed over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like the form.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

She was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group didn’t already know about the artist. (She died in the year after having a cardiac event on stage in Italy.) Why should younger generations learn about the legend? “In my view she would inspire young people to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” remarks the choreographer. “However she accomplished this very elegantly. She expressed something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin aimed to take the similar method in this work. “We see dancing and hear beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and instances that resonate. This is what I respect about Miriam. Because if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. Yet she did it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at London, the dates