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“If you talk about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a royal figure,” states the choreographer. Referred to as Mama Africa, the iconic artist additionally spent time in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a teenager dispatched to labor to support her family in the city, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then the country’s official delegate to the UN. An vocal anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a Black Panther. Her remarkable story and impact inspire the choreographer’s new production, the performance, set for its UK premiere.

A Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges dance, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a stage work that is not a simple biography but utilizes her past, especially her story of exile: after relocating to the city in 1959, she was barred from her homeland for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was excluded from the US after marrying activist Stokely Carmichael. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, some festivity, some challenge – with the exceptional South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Power and poise … the production.

In the country, a shebeen is an unofficial venue for locally made drinks and lively conversation, usually presided over by a host. Her parent Christina was a proprietress who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was a newborn. Unable to pay the penalty, she went to prison for half a year, bringing her infant with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the details the choreographer learned when studying her story. “Numerous tales!” exclaims she, 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 dance group the ensemble. Her parent would sing Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and move along in the living room.

Songs of freedom … Miriam Makeba performs at the venue in 1988.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in hospital in the city. “I stopped working for a quarter to take care of her and she was constantly requesting the singer. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” she recalls. “There was ample time to pass at the facility so I started researching.” As well as learning of her victorious homecoming to the nation in the year, after the release of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), she found that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter the girl died in labor in 1985, and that because of her banishment she could not be present at her own mother’s funeral. “You see people and you look at their success and you overlook that they are struggling like anyone else,” says the choreographer.

Creation and Themes

These reflections went into the making of the show (first staged in Brussels in 2023). Fortunately, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the concept for the work was to honor “death, life and mourning”. Within that, she highlights elements of her life story like memories, and nods more generally to the theme of uprooting and loss today. While it’s not overt in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to welcome this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the multi-talented dancers appear taken over by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on the platform. Seutin’s dance composition includes multiple styles of movement she has absorbed over the time, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including urban dances like the form.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast were unaware about the singer. (Makeba died in the year after having a heart attack on the platform in Italy.) Why should new audiences discover the legend? “In my view she would motivate the youth to advocate what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says the choreographer. “However she accomplished this very elegantly. She’d say something poignant and then perform a lovely melody.” She aimed to adopt the similar method in this production. “We see movement and hear melodies, an element of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and instances that resonate. This is what I admire about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. But she did it in a way that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

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