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“If you talk about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” states the choreographer. Called the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist also associated in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like prominent artists. Starting as a teenager sent to work to support her family in the city, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the United Nations. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a activist. This rich life and legacy inspire Seutin’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its UK premiere.

A Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen merges dance, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a theatrical piece that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on Makeba’s history, especially her experience of banishment: after relocating to the city in 1959, Makeba was barred from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was excluded from the United States after wedding Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, some festivity, part provocation – with the fabulous South African singer the performer at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar venue for locally made drinks and animated discussions, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the penalty, she was incarcerated for half a year, taking her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life started – just one of the things the choreographer discovered when researching her story. “So many stories!” says Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a performance. Her father is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before moving to learn and labor in the UK, where she established her dance group the ensemble. Her parent would perform her music, such as the tunes, when she was a youngster, and dance to them in the home.

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

A ten years back, her parent had the illness 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 singing together,” she recalls. “There was ample time to pass at the facility so I started researching.” In addition to reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in the year, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the era), Seutin found that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi passed away in labor in 1985, and that due to her exile she could not be present at her own mother’s funeral. “You see people and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Creation and Themes

These reflections contributed to the making of the production (premiered in the city in 2023). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was successful, but the idea for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. In this context, Seutin highlights threads of Makeba’s biography like memories, and nods more generally to the theme of uprooting and loss nowadays. While it’s not overt in the performance, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas linked with the icon to welcome this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in the show.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the multi-talented performers appear taken over by rhythm, in synthesis with the musicians on the platform. Her choreography includes multiple styles of movement she has learned over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the artist. (Makeba died in the year after having a heart attack on the platform in Italy.) Why should younger generations discover Mama Africa? “In my view she would motivate the youth to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” remarks the choreographer. “But she did it very elegantly. She expressed something meaningful and then sing a beautiful song.” She wanted to adopt the similar method in this work. “Audiences observe movement and hear melodies, an aspect of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and instances that resonate. That’s what I respect about Miriam. Because if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. Yet she did it in a manner that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is showing in the city, 22-24 October