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“Discussing about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s similar to talking about a sovereign,” explains the choreographer. Known as the Empress of African Song, Makeba additionally spent time in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Starting as a young person dispatched to labor to support her family in Johannesburg, she later served as an envoy for Ghana, then Guinea’s representative to the UN. An vocal anti-apartheid activist, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This remarkable story and impact inspire Seutin’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its UK premiere.

A Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen merges movement, live music, and spoken word in a stage work that isn’t a simple biography but draws on Makeba’s history, particularly her story of exile: after relocating to New York in 1959, she was prohibited from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after marrying Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, part celebration, some challenge – with a fabulous South African singer the performer leading reviving her music 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 managed by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the fine, Christina was incarcerated for six months, taking her infant with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the details the choreographer learned when researching her story. “So many stories!” exclaims she, when they met in the city after a show. Her father is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to study and work in the UK, where she established her dance group Vocab Dance. Her parent would perform her music, such as the tunes, when she was a child, and move along in the living room.

Melodies of liberation … Miriam Makeba sings at Wembley Stadium in the year.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in medical care in the city. “I paused my career for three months to look after her and she was constantly asking for the singer. She was so happy when we were singing together,” Seutin recalls. “There was ample time to kill at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to learning of her victorious homecoming to South Africa in the year, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), she discovered that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi died in childbirth in the year, and that because of her banishment she could not attend her parent’s funeral. “You see people and you focus on their achievements and you overlook that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” states Seutin.

Creation and Concepts

These reflections contributed to the creation of the production (first staged in Brussels in the year). Thankfully, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the idea for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, Seutin highlights threads of her life story like flashbacks, and nods more generally to the idea of displacement and dispossession today. Although it’s not overt in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas linked with Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented performers appear possessed by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on the platform. Seutin’s choreography incorporates various forms of dance she has absorbed over the time, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like the form.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the cast didn’t already know about the singer. (Makeba died in the year after having a cardiac event on the platform in Italy.) Why should new audiences learn about Mama Africa? “In my view she would motivate the youth to advocate what they believe in, speaking the truth,” remarks the choreographer. “But she did it very gracefully. She expressed something meaningful and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin wanted to adopt the same approach in this work. “We see movement and listen to beautiful songs, an element of entertainment, but mixed with powerful ideas and moments that hit. This is what I admire about her. Because if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she achieved it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be graced by her talent.”

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