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“Discussing about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s similar to talking about a sovereign,” states the choreographer. Known as the Empress of African Song, Makeba additionally spent time in New York with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Beginning as a young person sent to work to support her family in Johannesburg, she eventually became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s official delegate to the UN. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a Black Panther. Her remarkable story and impact inspire the choreographer’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its British debut.

A Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges movement, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a theatrical piece that is not a simple biography but utilizes Makeba’s history, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to New York in the year, she was barred from her homeland for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was banned from the US after marrying activist Stokely Carmichael. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, some festivity, some challenge – with a exceptional vocalist Tutu Puoane leading reviving her music to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial gathering place for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, often managed by a host. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was a newborn. Incapable of covering the penalty, Christina went to prison for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life started – just one of the things Seutin learned when researching Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” says Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she founded her dance group Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would perform Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and dance to them in the home.

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

A ten years back, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in London. “I stopped working for a quarter to look after her and she was always asking for Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were singing together,” she recalls. “There was ample time to kill at the facility so I started researching.” In addition to reading about her victorious homecoming 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 found that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi died in labor in the year, and that because of her exile she hadn’t been able to be present at her own mother’s memorial. “You see people and you focus on their success and you overlook that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Creation and Concepts

All these thoughts went into the making of the show (premiered in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, her parent’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the piece was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. In this context, Seutin highlights threads of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more broadly to the theme of uprooting and loss nowadays. While it’s not overt in the performance, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas connected to the icon to greet this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s local drink, the skilled dancers appear possessed by rhythm, in synthesis with the players on the platform. Seutin’s dance composition includes multiple styles of dance she has absorbed over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, 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 group were unaware about the artist. (She died in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in the country.) Why should new audiences learn about Mama Africa? “I think she would motivate the youth to advocate what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “However she did it very gracefully. She expressed something poignant and then perform a lovely melody.” She wanted to take the similar method in this production. “We see movement and hear beautiful songs, an aspect of enjoyment, but mixed with strong messages and moments that resonate. That’s what I respect about Miriam. Because if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They retreat. But 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 at London, 22-24 October