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“When you speak about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a queen,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Called the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally spent time in New York with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a young person dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she later served as an envoy for Ghana, then the country’s official delegate to the United Nations. An vocal anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a activist. Her remarkable story and impact inspire Seutin’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its UK premiere.

The Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen combines movement, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on her past, particularly her experience of banishment: after relocating to the city in 1959, she was prohibited from South Africa for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after wedding Black Panther activist her spouse. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, some festivity, some challenge – with a exceptional vocalist the performer at the centre reviving her music to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a shebeen is an unofficial gathering place for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, usually presided over by a host. Makeba’s mother Christina was a proprietress who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was a newborn. Unable to pay the fine, she was incarcerated for six months, bringing her baby with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the things the choreographer discovered when researching her story. “So many stories!” says Seutin, when we meet in the city after a show. Seutin’s parent is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before relocating to study and work in the UK, where she founded her dance group Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would sing Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when she was a child, and move along in the home.

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

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in hospital in London. “I stopped working for three months to take care of her and she was constantly asking for the singer. It delighted her when we were singing together,” Seutin recalls. “I had so much time to pass at the hospital so I started researching.” As well as reading about her victorious homecoming to the nation in 1990, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a young lawyer in the era), she discovered that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi passed away in childbirth in the year, and that because of her exile she could not attend her parent’s memorial. “You see people and you focus on their success and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” states Seutin.

Creation and Themes

These reflections contributed to the creation of the production (first staged in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the idea for the work was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, Seutin pulls out elements 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 additional character, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas connected to Miriam Makeba to welcome this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the skilled dancers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the players on the platform. Seutin’s choreography incorporates multiple styles of movement she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including street styles like krump.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the group didn’t already know about the artist. (She died in the year after having a heart attack on the platform in the country.) Why should new audiences learn about the legend? “In my view she would motivate young people to stand for what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “However she did it very elegantly. She expressed something meaningful and then sing a beautiful song.” She wanted to adopt the similar method in this production. “Audiences observe dancing and listen to melodies, an element of entertainment, but mixed with powerful ideas and moments that hit. That’s what I admire about Miriam. Since if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she achieved 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