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“Discussing about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a queen,” remarks the choreographer. Referred to as Mama Africa, the iconic artist also associated in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a young person dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she eventually became a diplomat for the nation, then the country’s representative to the UN. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This rich story and impact motivate Seutin’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its British debut.

The Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen merges movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that isn’t a simple biography but utilizes Makeba’s history, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to New York in 1959, Makeba was prohibited from South Africa for 30 years due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was banned from the US after marrying Black Panther activist her spouse. The performance resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, part celebration, some challenge – with the exceptional vocalist Tutu Puoane leading bringing Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar venue for locally made drinks 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 Makeba was 18 days old. Unable to pay the fine, Christina went to prison for six months, bringing her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s remarkable journey started – just one of the details the choreographer learned when studying Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” exclaims Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a performance. Her parent is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before moving to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she founded her company Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would sing her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and move along in the home.

Melodies of liberation … Miriam Makeba sings at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in medical care in the city. “I paused my career for a quarter to take care of her and she was constantly requesting Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were singing together,” Seutin remembers. “There was ample time to kill at the hospital so I started researching.” As well as reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in the year, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the era), Seutin discovered that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi died in childbirth in the year, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to be present at her own mother’s funeral. “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 Concepts

These reflections contributed to the creation of the show (first staged in the city in 2023). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was effective, but the idea for the work was to honor “death, life and mourning”. In this context, she highlights threads of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and references more generally to the idea of displacement and dispossession today. Although it’s not explicit in the show, she had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “And we gather as these alter egos of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to greet this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in the show.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the multi-talented dancers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the players on the platform. Seutin’s dance composition incorporates multiple styles of movement she has learned over the time, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the group didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba passed away in 2008 after having a cardiac event 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 are, expressing honesty,” says Seutin. “However she accomplished this very elegantly. She’d say something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin wanted to adopt the same approach in this work. “Audiences observe movement and hear beautiful songs, an aspect of enjoyment, but intertwined with strong messages and instances that hit. That’s what I respect about her. Since if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They back away. But she achieved it in a way that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• The performance is at London, the dates