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“Discussing about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a queen,” remarks the choreographer. Called Mama Africa, Makeba also spent time 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 the city, she later served as an envoy for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This remarkable story and impact motivate the choreographer’s latest work, the performance, scheduled for its UK premiere.

A Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that isn’t a simple biography but utilizes her past, particularly her story of exile: after moving to the city in the year, she was barred from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the US after wedding activist Stokely Carmichael. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, part celebration, part provocation – with a exceptional South African singer the performer leading reviving Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial venue for locally made drinks and animated discussions, often managed by a host. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was a newborn. Unable to pay the fine, she went to prison for six months, taking her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life began – just one of the details Seutin learned when studying her story. “So many stories!” exclaims she, when we meet in Brussels after a show. Her father is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before moving 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 she was a child, and move along in the home.

Melodies of liberation … the artist performs at the venue in the year.

A decade ago, 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 always asking for Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were singing together,” Seutin recalls. “I had so much time to kill at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in 1990, after the release of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the 1950s), she found that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi passed away in labor in the year, and that due to her banishment she hadn’t been able to attend her parent’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you look at their success and you overlook that they are facing challenges like everyone,” says the choreographer.

Creation and Concepts

All these thoughts contributed to the creation of the show (premiered in Brussels in 2023). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was effective, but the idea for the work was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, she highlights elements of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and nods more broadly to the theme of displacement and dispossession nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “And we gather as these alter egos of characters linked with Miriam Makeba 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 multi-talented dancers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the players on the platform. Her choreography incorporates various forms of dance she has absorbed over the years, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like krump.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

She was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the cast were unaware about the singer. (Makeba passed away in 2008 after having a cardiac event on stage in the country.) Why should new audiences discover the legend? “In my view she would motivate young people to advocate what they believe in, expressing honesty,” remarks the choreographer. “However she did it very gracefully. She’d say something meaningful and then perform a lovely melody.” Seutin wanted to take the similar method in this work. “We see dancing and hear beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but mixed with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. That’s what I admire about Miriam. Because if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she did it in a way that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at the city, 22-24 October