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“When you speak about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s like speaking about a queen,” states Alesandra Seutin. Known as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally spent time in New York with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Starting as a young person sent to work to support her family in the city, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then the country’s official delegate to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. Her rich story and impact inspire the choreographer’s latest work, the performance, scheduled for its British debut.

The Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen merges dance, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on Makeba’s history, especially her story of exile: after relocating to the city in 1959, she was barred from her homeland for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the US after marrying Black Panther activist her spouse. The show resembles a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, some festivity, part provocation – with a exceptional South African singer the performer leading bringing her music to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial gathering place for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother Christina was a shebeen queen who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the fine, Christina went to prison for half a year, bringing her baby with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the things the choreographer learned when studying her story. “So many stories!” exclaims she, when we meet in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before moving to learn and labor in the UK, where she founded her company the ensemble. Her South African mother would sing her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a child, and move along in the living room.

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

A ten years back, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in the city. “I stopped working for three months to look after her and she was constantly 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 facility so I started researching.” As well as learning of her victorious homecoming to South Africa in 1990, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the era), she found that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that her child Bongi died in labor in the year, and that because of her exile she hadn’t been able to attend her own mother’s funeral. “You see people and you look at their achievements and you forget that they are facing challenges like everyone,” says Seutin.

Creation and Concepts

These reflections went into the creation of the show (premiered in Brussels in the year). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was effective, but the idea for the piece was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. In this context, she pulls out threads of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and references more generally to the theme of uprooting and loss nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the show, she had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “And we gather as these other selves of personas connected to Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s local drink, the multi-talented performers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the musicians on the platform. Her choreography incorporates multiple styles 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 … the creator.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group didn’t already know about the artist. (She died in 2008 after having a cardiac event on the platform in Italy.) Why should new audiences discover Mama Africa? “I think she would motivate young people to advocate what they are, expressing honesty,” remarks the choreographer. “But she accomplished this very gracefully. She expressed something poignant and then sing a lovely melody.” Seutin wanted to take the same approach in this work. “Audiences observe dancing and hear beautiful songs, an element of enjoyment, but intertwined with strong messages and instances that resonate. This is what I respect about her. Because if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They retreat. But she achieved it in a way that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• The performance is showing in London, the dates