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“When you speak about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s similar to talking about a queen,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as Mama Africa, Makeba also spent time in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a young person dispatched to labor to support her family in the city, she eventually served as an envoy for Ghana, then the country’s representative to the UN. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was married to a activist. Her rich story and impact inspire Seutin’s latest work, the performance, set for its UK premiere.

The Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen merges dance, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a stage work that isn’t a simple biography but draws on her past, especially her experience of banishment: after relocating to the city in 1959, Makeba was prohibited from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was banned from the US after wedding Black Panther activist her spouse. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – some praise, some festivity, part provocation – with the fabulous vocalist Tutu Puoane at the centre bringing Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … the production.

In the country, a shebeen is an under-the-radar venue for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, often presided over by a host. Her parent Christina was a shebeen queen who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the penalty, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life started – just one of the details Seutin learned when researching her story. “Numerous tales!” says Seutin, when we meet in Brussels after a performance. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before moving to learn and labor in the UK, where she founded her company the ensemble. Her parent would sing Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when she was a child, and dance to them in the home.

Songs of freedom … the artist performs at Wembley Stadium in the year.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in medical care in London. “I stopped working for a quarter to look after her and she was always requesting Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” she remembers. “There was ample time to pass 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 young lawyer in the era), she discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that her child the girl passed away in labor in the year, and that because of her banishment she could not attend her own mother’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are facing challenges like everyone,” says the choreographer.

Development and Concepts

All these thoughts contributed to the making of the show (first staged in Brussels in the year). Fortunately, her parent’s treatment was effective, but the concept for the piece was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. In this context, she highlights elements of her life story like flashbacks, and nods more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. While it’s not explicit in the performance, she had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “And we gather as these alter egos of personas connected to Miriam Makeba to welcome this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in the show.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s local drink, the multi-talented performers appear taken over by beat, in synthesis with the players on stage. Her choreography includes multiple styles of movement she has learned over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast were unaware about the singer. (She died in the year after having a heart attack on the platform in Italy.) Why should younger generations discover the legend? “I think she would motivate the youth to stand for what they believe in, expressing honesty,” says Seutin. “But she did it very gracefully. She’d say something meaningful and then perform a beautiful song.” She aimed to adopt the same approach in this work. “Audiences observe dancing and hear beautiful songs, an element of entertainment, but mixed with powerful ideas and moments that hit. This is what I respect about her. Since if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They retreat. Yet she achieved it in a way that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

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