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“If you talk about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s like speaking about a royal figure,” explains the choreographer. Called the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist also spent time in New York with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a teenager sent to work to provide for her relatives in the city, she later became a diplomat for Ghana, then Guinea’s official delegate to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. This rich life and legacy inspire the choreographer’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its British debut.

The Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges dance, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on her past, particularly her experience of banishment: after moving to New York in 1959, she was barred from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after marrying activist her spouse. The performance is like a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, some festivity, part provocation – with the exceptional vocalist the performer at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Power and poise … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial gathering place for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a proprietress who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the fine, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how her eventful life began – just one of the things Seutin learned when researching Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” says she, when we meet in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s father is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before moving to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she founded her dance group the ensemble. Her parent would perform her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a child, and dance to them in the home.

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

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for a quarter to look after her and she was constantly asking for Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” Seutin remembers. “I had so much time to pass at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to learning of her victorious homecoming to South Africa in the year, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the era), she found that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her youth, that her child Bongi died in labor in 1985, and that because of her banishment she could not be present at her parent’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you focus on their success and you overlook that they are facing challenges like everyone,” states Seutin.

Development and Themes

These reflections contributed to the creation of the show (first staged in the city in 2023). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was effective, but the concept for the work was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, Seutin pulls out threads of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and references more generally to the idea of displacement and dispossession today. While it’s not overt in the show, she had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of characters linked with the icon to welcome this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the skilled dancers appear possessed by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on the platform. Seutin’s dance composition includes multiple styles of movement she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including street styles like the form.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the group didn’t already know about the singer. (Makeba passed away in the year after having a cardiac event on stage in Italy.) Why should new audiences discover Mama Africa? “In my view she would inspire young people to advocate what they believe in, speaking the truth,” remarks Seutin. “However she did it very gracefully. She expressed something poignant and then perform a lovely melody.” Seutin wanted to take the similar method in this production. “We see dancing and listen to melodies, an element of enjoyment, but mixed with strong messages and moments that hit. That’s what I admire about Miriam. Because if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They retreat. Yet she achieved it in a way that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

• The performance is at the city, the dates