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“When you speak about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a sovereign,” explains the choreographer. Referred to as Mama Africa, the iconic artist additionally spent time in New York with jazz greats like prominent artists. Starting as a teenager sent to work to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she eventually became a diplomat for Ghana, then the country’s representative to the UN. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a activist. This rich story and impact inspire Seutin’s latest work, the performance, set for its UK premiere.

A Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen merges dance, live music, and spoken word in a stage work that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but utilizes her past, particularly her story of exile: after moving to the city in 1959, Makeba was prohibited from South Africa for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was excluded from the United States after wedding activist her spouse. The performance resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, some festivity, some challenge – with the fabulous South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving her music to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar venue for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Her parent Christina was a shebeen queen who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was a newborn. Incapable of covering the fine, Christina went to prison for six months, taking her infant with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the details Seutin discovered when studying her story. “Numerous tales!” exclaims Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a show. Her father is Belgian and she was raised there before relocating to study and work in the UK, where she established her company Vocab Dance. Her parent would sing Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when she was a child, and dance to them in the home.

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

A decade ago, her parent had cancer and was in hospital in the city. “I stopped working for three months to look after her and she was always requesting Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” she recalls. “I had so much time to kill at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to learning of 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), she discovered that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter the girl died in childbirth in 1985, and that due to her exile she hadn’t been able to be present at her own mother’s memorial. “You see people and you look at their success and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” states Seutin.

Creation and Concepts

All these thoughts went into the making of the show (premiered in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was effective, but the concept for the piece was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, Seutin pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. Although it’s not overt in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “And we gather as these alter egos of characters connected to Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in the show.

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 dance composition includes multiple styles of dance she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ personal styles, 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 cast were unaware about the singer. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a heart attack on stage in the country.) Why should younger generations learn about the legend? “In my view she would inspire the youth to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” says the choreographer. “But she did it very elegantly. She’d say something meaningful and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin wanted to take the same approach in this production. “Audiences observe movement and hear melodies, an aspect of enjoyment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and instances that hit. That’s what I admire about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she achieved it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• The performance is at the city, 22-24 October