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“If you talk about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s similar to talking about a sovereign,” explains Alesandra Seutin. Called Mama Africa, Makeba additionally associated in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Beginning as a teenager sent to work to support her family in Johannesburg, she later became a diplomat for Ghana, then Guinea’s representative to the UN. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. Her rich life and legacy inspire the choreographer’s new production, the performance, set for its UK premiere.

A Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show combines movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that is not a simple biography but utilizes her past, especially her experience of banishment: after relocating to New York in the year, she was barred from her homeland for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was banned from the US after wedding Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance is like a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, some festivity, some challenge – with the fabulous vocalist Tutu Puoane leading bringing her music to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … the production.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial venue for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually presided over by a host. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a proprietress who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was a newborn. Incapable of covering the fine, she went to prison for half a year, taking her infant with her, which is how her remarkable journey began – just one of the things Seutin learned when researching Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” exclaims Seutin, 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 UK, where she established her company Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would sing Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and dance to them in the living room.

Melodies of liberation … Miriam Makeba sings at the venue in 1988.

A decade ago, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in the city. “I stopped working for a quarter to look after her and she was constantly requesting the singer. It delighted her when we were singing together,” she remembers. “I had so much time to kill at the facility so I started researching.” In addition to reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in the year, after the release of the leader (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), Seutin discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi died in labor in 1985, and that because of her exile she could not attend her parent’s funeral. “You see people and you look at their success and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Creation and Themes

All these thoughts contributed to the making of the production (premiered in the city in 2023). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was effective, but the concept for the piece was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, she highlights threads of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more generally to the idea of uprooting and loss nowadays. While it’s not overt in the performance, she had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “And we gather as these alter egos of personas linked with Miriam Makeba to welcome this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the skilled dancers appear taken over by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on the platform. Seutin’s choreography includes multiple styles of dance she has absorbed over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including street styles like the form.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

She was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the cast were unaware about the artist. (She passed away in 2008 after having a heart attack on stage in Italy.) Why should younger generations discover the legend? “I think she would motivate young people to stand for what they are, speaking the truth,” remarks Seutin. “However she did it very elegantly. She’d say something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” She aimed to adopt the same approach in this production. “Audiences observe movement and listen to melodies, an element of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. That’s what I respect about her. Because if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They retreat. Yet she did it in a manner that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is showing in the city, the dates