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“Discussing about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s like speaking about a royal figure,” explains Alesandra Seutin. Known as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally spent time in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a teenager dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she later became a diplomat for Ghana, then the country’s representative to the United Nations. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a activist. This rich story and impact inspire Seutin’s new production, the performance, set for its UK premiere.

A Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show combines movement, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a stage work that isn’t a simple biography but utilizes Makeba’s history, especially her story of exile: after relocating to New York in 1959, she was barred from her homeland for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was banned from the US after wedding activist Stokely Carmichael. The show resembles a ceremonial tribute, a reimagined memorial – some praise, part celebration, part provocation – with the exceptional South African singer the performer leading reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial gathering place for locally made drinks and animated discussions, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Her parent Christina was a proprietress who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the penalty, she went to prison for six months, bringing her baby with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the details Seutin learned when researching her story. “So many stories!” exclaims she, when they met in the city after a show. Her father is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before moving to study and work in the UK, where she established her dance group the ensemble. Her parent would sing Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a child, and dance to them in the home.

Melodies of liberation … the artist sings at the venue in the year.

A decade ago, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for three months to look after her and she was always asking for the singer. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” she remembers. “There was ample time to kill at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to learning of her victorious homecoming to South Africa in 1990, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had met when he was a young lawyer in the 1950s), she discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that her child the girl died in childbirth in the year, and that due to her exile she could not attend her parent’s funeral. “You see people and you look at their success and you forget that they are facing challenges like everyone,” says the choreographer.

Creation and Concepts

All these thoughts contributed to the creation of the production (first staged in Brussels in 2023). Fortunately, her parent’s therapy was effective, but the idea for the work was to honor “death, life and mourning”. In this context, she highlights elements of her life story like flashbacks, and references more generally to the theme of uprooting and loss today. While it’s not overt in the show, she had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas linked with Miriam Makeba to greet this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in the show.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the skilled performers appear possessed by rhythm, in synthesis with the players on the platform. Seutin’s choreography incorporates various forms of dance she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including street styles like the form.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group didn’t already know about the singer. (She died in the year after having a heart attack on stage in the country.) Why should new audiences discover Mama Africa? “In my view she would inspire young people to stand for what they believe in, expressing honesty,” says Seutin. “But she did it very gracefully. She’d say something meaningful and then sing a lovely melody.” Seutin wanted to take the similar method in this production. “Audiences observe dancing and hear beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but mixed with strong messages and moments that hit. That’s what I respect about her. Because if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They retreat. Yet she did it in a way that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is showing in the city, the dates