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“If you talk about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s similar to talking about a sovereign,” explains the choreographer. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, Makeba also spent time in New York with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Beginning as a young person dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in the city, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. Her rich life and legacy inspire the choreographer’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its UK premiere.

A Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen combines 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 moving to New York in the year, she was prohibited from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was banned from the US after marrying activist her spouse. The show resembles a ceremonial tribute, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, part celebration, part provocation – with the fabulous vocalist the performer at the centre bringing Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Power and poise … the production.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar gathering place for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually presided over by a shebeen queen. Her parent the matriarch was a proprietress who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was a newborn. Incapable of covering the fine, she was incarcerated for six months, bringing her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life began – just one of the things the choreographer learned when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” exclaims she, when we meet in the city after a show. Her father is Belgian and she was raised there before moving to study and work in the UK, where she established her dance group the ensemble. Her South African mother would sing Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and move along in the home.

Melodies of liberation … the artist performs at the venue in 1988.

A ten years back, her parent had the illness and was in hospital in London. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was always requesting the singer. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” she recalls. “I had so much time to kill at the hospital so I started researching.” 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 legal professional in the era), Seutin found that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter the girl passed away in childbirth in 1985, and that due to her banishment she could not be present at her own mother’s memorial. “You see people and you look at their success and you overlook that they are struggling like everyone,” states the choreographer.

Creation and Themes

All these thoughts contributed to the making of the production (first staged in the city in 2023). Thankfully, her parent’s treatment was successful, but the idea for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, she highlights threads of her life story like memories, and nods more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. Although it’s not explicit in the performance, she had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of characters connected to the icon to greet this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in the show.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented dancers appear possessed by rhythm, in harmony with the players on the platform. Her choreography incorporates multiple styles of movement she has learned over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including street styles like krump.

Honoring strength … the creator.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group were unaware about the singer. (Makeba passed away in 2008 after having a heart attack on stage in the country.) Why should younger generations learn about Mama Africa? “In my view she would inspire young people to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” remarks Seutin. “But she accomplished this very gracefully. She’d say something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” She wanted to take the similar method in this production. “We see dancing and hear beautiful songs, an element of enjoyment, but mixed with strong messages and instances that resonate. This is what I admire about her. Because if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They retreat. Yet she achieved it in a manner that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• The performance is at London, the dates