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“Discussing about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s similar to talking about a royal figure,” explains the choreographer. Known as the Empress of African Song, Makeba also associated in New York with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a young person sent to work to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she eventually served as an envoy for the nation, then the country’s representative to the UN. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This remarkable life and legacy motivate the choreographer’s latest work, the performance, set for its UK premiere.

A Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen combines movement, live music, and spoken word in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on her past, especially her story of exile: after moving to New York in the year, she was barred from South Africa for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was excluded from the United States after wedding Black Panther activist her spouse. The performance resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, some festivity, part provocation – with the exceptional vocalist the performer at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … the production.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar gathering place for locally made drinks and lively conversation, usually presided over by a host. Her parent the matriarch was a proprietress who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the penalty, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, bringing her baby with her, which is how her eventful life began – just one of the things Seutin discovered when researching Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” exclaims she, when we meet in Brussels after a show. Her parent is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before moving to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she established her company Vocab Dance. Her parent would perform her music, such as the tunes, when she was a child, and dance to them in the home.

Melodies of liberation … the artist sings at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in hospital in London. “I stopped working for three months to take care of her and she was always asking for Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” Seutin recalls. “I had so much time to pass at the hospital so I started researching.” As well as reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in 1990, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), Seutin found that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi died in labor in the year, and that due to her banishment she could not attend her own mother’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you look at their success and you overlook that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Creation and Themes

These reflections went into the making of the show (premiered in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, her parent’s therapy was effective, but the idea for the piece was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, she pulls out threads of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and references more generally to the idea of uprooting and loss today. Although it’s not explicit in the performance, she had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “And we gather as these alter egos of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in the show.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented dancers appear possessed by beat, in harmony with the musicians on the platform. Her choreography includes multiple styles of movement she has absorbed over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including street styles like the form.

Honoring strength … the creator.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the cast didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba passed away in 2008 after having a cardiac event on stage in the country.) Why should new audiences discover the legend? “I think she would inspire the youth to advocate what they believe in, speaking the truth,” remarks the choreographer. “However she accomplished this very gracefully. She expressed something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” She wanted to take the similar method in this production. “We see movement and hear melodies, an aspect 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 back away. Yet she achieved it in a manner that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at London, the dates