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“Discussing about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a queen,” states the choreographer. Called Mama Africa, the iconic artist also spent time in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like prominent artists. Beginning as a teenager dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in the city, she eventually became a diplomat for Ghana, then the country’s official delegate to the UN. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. Her rich story and impact inspire Seutin’s latest work, the performance, set for its British debut.

A Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show merges dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that isn’t a simple biography but draws on Makeba’s history, especially her story of exile: after moving to New York in the year, Makeba was barred from South Africa for 30 years due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was banned from the United States after marrying Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance is like a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, part celebration, part provocation – with a fabulous South African singer Tutu Puoane leading reviving Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar gathering place for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, usually managed by a host. Her parent Christina was a shebeen queen who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the fine, she went to prison for six months, bringing her baby with her, which is how her eventful life began – just one of the details Seutin discovered when researching her story. “Numerous tales!” says she, when we meet in the city after a performance. Her father is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before relocating to study and work in the UK, where she founded her dance group Vocab Dance. Her parent would perform her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, 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, her parent had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I paused my career for a quarter to look after her and she was constantly requesting the singer. It delighted her 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 reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in 1990, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a young lawyer in the 1950s), she found that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that her child Bongi passed away in labor in 1985, and that due to her exile she hadn’t been able to be present at her parent’s memorial. “You see people and you look at their success and you overlook that they are struggling like anyone else,” states Seutin.

Creation and Concepts

All these thoughts contributed to the creation of the show (first staged in the city in 2023). Fortunately, her parent’s therapy was effective, but the idea for the piece was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, she pulls out elements of her life story like memories, and references more broadly to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. Although it’s not explicit in the show, Seutin 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 … musicians in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s home-brew, the multi-talented performers appear possessed by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on stage. Her choreography includes various forms of movement she has learned over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including street styles like krump.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group were unaware about the artist. (She died in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in the country.) Why should younger generations discover the legend? “In my view she would inspire young people to stand for what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “However she accomplished this very elegantly. She expressed something meaningful and then sing a lovely melody.” Seutin wanted to adopt the same approach in this production. “Audiences observe dancing and listen to beautiful songs, an element of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that hit. That’s what I respect about her. Since if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she did it in a manner that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be graced by her ability.”

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