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“If you talk about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” states the choreographer. Referred to as Mama Africa, Makeba additionally associated in New York with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Beginning as a young person dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she later served as an envoy for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the UN. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was married to a Black Panther. Her remarkable story and impact inspire the choreographer’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its British debut.

The Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show merges movement, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a stage work that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but utilizes her past, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to the city in the year, she was barred from South Africa for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was excluded from the United States after wedding Black Panther activist her spouse. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, some festivity, some challenge – with a fabulous vocalist Tutu Puoane leading bringing Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar gathering place for locally made drinks and animated discussions, often managed by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a shebeen queen 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, taking her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s remarkable journey began – just one of the details Seutin discovered when studying her story. “Numerous tales!” exclaims Seutin, when they met in the city after a show. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before relocating to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she established her company the ensemble. Her parent would perform her music, such as the tunes, when she was a youngster, and dance to them in the living room.

Songs of freedom … the artist sings at the venue in the year.

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in hospital in the city. “I stopped working for a quarter to take care of her and she was constantly asking for the singer. It delighted her when we were singing together,” Seutin remembers. “I had so much time to kill at the hospital so I started researching.” As well as reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in 1990, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), she found that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her youth, that her child Bongi died in labor in the year, and that because of her banishment she could not attend her parent’s memorial. “You see people and you look at their achievements and you forget that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” states the choreographer.

Creation and Themes

These reflections contributed to the creation of the production (premiered in Brussels in the year). Fortunately, her parent’s therapy was effective, but the concept for the work was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, 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 performance, she had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “And we gather as these alter egos of personas linked with Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in the show.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s local drink, the skilled dancers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the players on the platform. Seutin’s choreography incorporates various forms of movement she has absorbed over the time, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast were unaware about the artist. (Makeba passed away in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in Italy.) Why should younger generations learn about Mama Africa? “In my view she would motivate young people to advocate what they believe in, expressing honesty,” says the choreographer. “But she accomplished this very elegantly. She’d say something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” She aimed to take the similar method in this production. “Audiences observe movement and hear melodies, an element of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that hit. That’s what I respect about her. Because if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. But she achieved it in a manner that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• The performance is showing in the city, 22-24 October