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“When you speak about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s similar to talking about a queen,” states Alesandra Seutin. Called the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally associated in New York with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a young person dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she eventually served as an envoy for Ghana, then Guinea’s representative to the UN. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a Black Panther. Her rich life and legacy motivate the choreographer’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its UK premiere.

A Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show combines dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on her past, particularly her experience of banishment: after relocating to the city in 1959, Makeba was barred from South Africa for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was banned from the United States after marrying Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance resembles a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, some festivity, some challenge – with a exceptional South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In the country, a shebeen is an unofficial venue for locally made drinks and lively conversation, usually presided over by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother Christina was a proprietress who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the fine, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, bringing her infant with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the details Seutin learned when researching her story. “Numerous tales!” says Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a show. Her parent is Belgian and she was raised there before moving to learn and labor in the UK, where she established her company the ensemble. Her parent would perform her music, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a youngster, and dance to them in the living room.

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

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I paused my career for a quarter to take care of her and she was always asking for the singer. It delighted her when we were singing together,” she recalls. “There was ample time to kill at the hospital so I started researching.” In addition to learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in the year, after the release of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the era), she discovered that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that her child Bongi died in labor in 1985, and that due to her banishment she could not attend her parent’s memorial. “You see people and you look at their success and you overlook that they are facing challenges like everyone,” states the choreographer.

Development and Themes

All these thoughts went into the creation of the show (first staged in Brussels in 2023). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the piece was to honor “death, life and mourning”. Within that, Seutin highlights threads of Makeba’s biography like memories, and nods more generally to the idea of uprooting and loss nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the performance, she had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas linked with Miriam Makeba to welcome this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s local drink, the skilled dancers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the players on the platform. Her dance composition incorporates various forms of dance she has learned over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including urban dances like the form.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the cast were unaware about the artist. (She died in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in Italy.) Why should younger generations learn about Mama Africa? “In my view she would motivate the youth to advocate what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “However she accomplished this very elegantly. She’d say something meaningful and then perform a beautiful song.” She wanted to take the same approach in this work. “Audiences observe dancing and listen to beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but mixed with powerful ideas and instances that resonate. That’s what I respect about Miriam. Since if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They retreat. Yet she did it in a manner that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be graced by her ability.”

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