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“If you talk about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s akin to referring about a royal figure,” explains the choreographer. Called Mama Africa, Makeba additionally spent time in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a teenager dispatched to labor to support her family in the city, she later served as an envoy for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the United Nations. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was married to a activist. Her rich story and impact inspire the choreographer’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its British debut.

A Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that is not a simple biography but utilizes Makeba’s history, especially her experience of banishment: after relocating to New York in the year, Makeba was barred from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was excluded from the US after wedding activist her spouse. The show is like a ceremonial tribute, a reimagined memorial – some praise, some festivity, some challenge – with the exceptional South African singer the performer at the centre bringing Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Power and poise … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial venue for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a proprietress who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was a newborn. Incapable of covering the penalty, she was incarcerated for half a year, bringing her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life started – just one of the things the choreographer discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” exclaims she, when we meet in Brussels after a show. Her parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she founded her company the ensemble. Her parent would perform her music, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a youngster, and move along in the living room.

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

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in medical care in the city. “I stopped working for a quarter to take care of her and she was always requesting the singer. It delighted her when we were singing together,” she remembers. “There was ample time to kill at the hospital so I started researching.” As well as learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in 1990, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the 1950s), she found that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter the girl passed away in labor in 1985, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to attend her parent’s funeral. “You see people and you focus on their success and you overlook that they are facing challenges like everyone,” states Seutin.

Creation and Concepts

These reflections went into the making of the production (premiered in Brussels in the year). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was effective, but the idea for the work was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, she pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and nods more broadly to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. While it’s not explicit in the performance, she had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas linked with the icon to welcome this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented dancers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the players on stage. Seutin’s choreography includes various forms of dance she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast were unaware about the singer. (She 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 motivate young people to advocate what they are, expressing honesty,” says Seutin. “But she did it very elegantly. She expressed something meaningful and then perform a beautiful song.” She aimed to take the same approach in this work. “We see dancing and listen to beautiful songs, an aspect of enjoyment, but mixed with strong messages and instances that resonate. This is what I respect about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They back away. But she did it in a manner that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is showing in the city, the dates