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“Discussing about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s similar to talking about a royal figure,” remarks the choreographer. Called the Empress of African Song, Makeba additionally spent time in New York with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a teenager dispatched to labor to support her family in Johannesburg, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s official delegate to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. Her remarkable story and impact motivate Seutin’s latest work, the performance, set for its UK premiere.

The Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen combines movement, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a theatrical piece that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on her past, particularly her experience of banishment: after moving to the city in 1959, Makeba was barred from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after wedding Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The show is like a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, part celebration, some challenge – with a exceptional vocalist the performer at the centre reviving her music to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a shebeen is an under-the-radar venue for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually managed by a host. Makeba’s mother Christina was a shebeen queen who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was 18 days old. Unable to pay the penalty, she went to prison for six months, bringing her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life started – just one of the details the choreographer discovered when studying her story. “Numerous tales!” exclaims Seutin, when we meet in Brussels after a performance. Her father is Belgian and she was raised there before relocating to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she founded her dance group the ensemble. Her South African mother would sing her music, such as the tunes, when she was a child, and move along in the home.

Songs of freedom … the artist sings at the venue in 1988.

A ten years back, her parent had cancer and was in hospital in London. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was constantly requesting Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were singing together,” Seutin remembers. “I had so much time to pass at the facility so I started researching.” As well as learning of her victorious homecoming to the nation in the year, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), Seutin discovered that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter the girl died in labor in 1985, and that because of her exile she could not attend her own mother’s memorial. “You see people and you focus on their achievements and you overlook that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Creation and Themes

All these thoughts contributed to the making of the production (first staged in Brussels in the year). Thankfully, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the concept for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, she highlights threads of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and references more broadly to the idea of uprooting and loss nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “And we gather as these other selves of personas linked with the icon to welcome this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s home-brew, the skilled performers appear taken over by beat, in synthesis with the players on the platform. Her dance composition includes multiple styles of movement she has learned over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like the form.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba passed away in the year after having a heart attack on stage in the country.) Why should younger generations discover Mama Africa? “In my view she would motivate the youth to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “But she did it very gracefully. She’d say something poignant and then perform a lovely melody.” She wanted to adopt the same approach in this production. “We see movement and hear melodies, an aspect of enjoyment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. This is what I respect about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. Yet she did it in a way that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

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