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“If you talk about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” states Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally spent time in New York with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a young person sent to work to support her family in Johannesburg, she later became a diplomat for Ghana, then Guinea’s representative to the UN. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. This remarkable life and legacy inspire Seutin’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its British debut.

A Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show combines movement, live music, and spoken word in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but utilizes her past, particularly her experience of banishment: after relocating to New York in the year, Makeba was barred from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was excluded from the United States after wedding Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance is like a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, part celebration, part provocation – with a exceptional vocalist the performer leading reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an under-the-radar venue for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, usually presided over by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was 18 days old. Unable to pay the penalty, she went to prison for six months, taking her infant with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the things the choreographer discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” exclaims she, when they met in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before relocating to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she founded her dance group Vocab Dance. Her parent would sing Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a child, and move along in the living room.

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 paused my career for three months to look after her and she was constantly requesting the singer. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” Seutin remembers. “There was ample time to pass at the facility so I began investigating.” In addition to reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in 1990, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a young lawyer in the 1950s), Seutin found that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter the girl died in labor in the year, and that because of her banishment she could not be present at her parent’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you look at their success and you overlook that they are struggling like everyone,” states the choreographer.

Development and Themes

All these thoughts went into the creation of the production (premiered in the city in 2023). Fortunately, her parent’s therapy was effective, but the idea for the work was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, she pulls out elements of her life story like flashbacks, and references more broadly to the theme of uprooting and loss nowadays. While it’s not overt in the show, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas linked with the icon to welcome this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in the show.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s local drink, the skilled performers appear possessed by rhythm, in synthesis with the players on stage. Her choreography incorporates multiple styles of dance she has absorbed over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

She was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the group didn’t already know about the singer. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in the country.) Why should new audiences learn about the legend? “I think she would inspire young people to advocate what they are, expressing honesty,” remarks Seutin. “However she did it very elegantly. She expressed something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” She wanted to adopt the same approach in this work. “We see dancing and hear beautiful songs, an element of entertainment, but intertwined with strong messages and moments that hit. This is what I respect about Miriam. Because if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They retreat. Yet she achieved it in a manner that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at London, the dates