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“If you talk about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a royal figure,” remarks the choreographer. Known as the Empress of African Song, Makeba additionally spent time in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like prominent artists. Beginning as a young person sent to work to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she eventually became a diplomat for the nation, then the country’s official delegate to the UN. An vocal 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 Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen merges movement, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a stage work that is not a simple biography but draws on her past, particularly her experience of banishment: after moving to the city in the year, Makeba was barred from her homeland for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after marrying activist her spouse. The performance is like a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, part celebration, some challenge – with the fabulous vocalist the performer at the centre bringing Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Power and poise … the production.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an under-the-radar gathering place for locally made drinks and lively conversation, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Her parent the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was a newborn. Incapable of covering the penalty, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, bringing her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey began – just one of the details the choreographer discovered when studying her story. “So many stories!” says she, when they met in Brussels after a performance. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to study and work in the UK, where she established her company the ensemble. Her South African mother would perform her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a youngster, and dance to them in the home.

Melodies of liberation … the artist performs at Wembley Stadium in the year.

A ten years back, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in the city. “I stopped working for a quarter to take care of her and she was always asking for Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were singing together,” she recalls. “I had so much time to kill at the facility so I started researching.” As well as 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 young lawyer in the era), she discovered that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi passed away in labor in the year, and that because of her exile she hadn’t been able to be present at her parent’s memorial. “You see people and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Development and Concepts

All these thoughts contributed to the creation of the production (first staged in the city in 2023). Fortunately, her parent’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the piece was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. In this context, she highlights elements of her life story like flashbacks, and references more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. While it’s not overt in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas connected to Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the skilled performers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the players on stage. Her choreography includes multiple styles of dance she has learned over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including street styles like the form.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba died in the year after having a cardiac event on stage in the country.) Why should new audiences learn about Mama Africa? “In my view she would inspire the youth to advocate what they are, expressing honesty,” remarks the choreographer. “However she did it very gracefully. She expressed something meaningful and then perform a lovely melody.” She aimed to take the same approach in this work. “We see dancing and hear beautiful songs, an aspect of enjoyment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and instances that resonate. That’s what I respect about her. Since if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she did it in a manner that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at London, the dates