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“If you talk about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a sovereign,” remarks the choreographer. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, Makeba additionally spent time in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like prominent artists. Starting as a young person dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s official delegate to the United Nations. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was the wife to a activist. This remarkable story and impact motivate the choreographer’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its British debut.

A Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen combines movement, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but draws on Makeba’s history, particularly her story of exile: after moving to New York in 1959, Makeba was prohibited from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was banned from the US after marrying activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance is like a ceremonial tribute, a reimagined memorial – some praise, part celebration, part provocation – with the fabulous South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving her music to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar gathering place for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, often managed by a shebeen queen. Her parent the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was a newborn. Incapable of covering the fine, 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 Seutin learned when researching her story. “So many stories!” exclaims she, when we meet in Brussels after a performance. Seutin’s father is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before moving to study and work in the United Kingdom, 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 dance to them in the home.

Melodies of liberation … the artist performs at the venue in the year.

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for a quarter to look after her and she was always asking for the singer. She was so happy when we were singing together,” Seutin recalls. “There was ample time to pass at the hospital so I started researching.” As well as reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in 1990, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), she discovered that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that her child Bongi passed away in childbirth in the year, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to be present at her parent’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you overlook that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Development and Concepts

All these thoughts contributed to the making of the show (premiered in the city in the year). Fortunately, her parent’s treatment was effective, but the idea for the work was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, Seutin highlights elements of her life story like memories, and nods more broadly to the idea of uprooting and loss today. Although it’s not overt in the show, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas connected to the icon to welcome this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in the show.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s local drink, the skilled performers appear possessed by beat, in synthesis with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s choreography incorporates multiple styles of movement she has learned over the time, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including street styles like krump.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba passed away in the year after having a heart attack on the platform in Italy.) Why should new audiences discover the legend? “In my view she would motivate young people to advocate what they believe in, expressing honesty,” says the choreographer. “But she accomplished this very gracefully. She’d say something poignant and then sing a beautiful song.” She aimed to adopt the similar method in this work. “Audiences observe dancing and listen to melodies, an aspect of enjoyment, but mixed with powerful ideas and instances that resonate. That’s what I respect about Miriam. Since if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They back away. But she achieved it in a manner that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at London, 22-24 October