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“If you talk about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s like speaking about a royal figure,” states Alesandra Seutin. Called the Empress of African Song, Makeba additionally associated in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like prominent artists. Beginning as a young person dispatched to labor to support her family in the city, she later served as an envoy for the nation, then the country’s official delegate to the UN. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This remarkable story and impact motivate the choreographer’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its British debut.

A Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen combines movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a simple biography but draws on Makeba’s history, particularly her story of exile: after relocating to New York in the year, Makeba was prohibited from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was excluded from the United States after marrying activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – some praise, some festivity, some challenge – with a exceptional South African singer Tutu Puoane leading reviving her music to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial venue for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the fine, she was incarcerated for six months, taking her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s remarkable journey started – just one of the things the choreographer discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” says she, when they met in Brussels after a performance. Her father is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before moving to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she established her company the ensemble. Her parent would sing her music, such as the tunes, when she was a youngster, and move along in the living room.

Melodies of liberation … the artist performs at the venue in the year.

A decade ago, 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 constantly asking for Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were singing together,” Seutin recalls. “I had so much time to pass at the facility so I started researching.” As well as learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in 1990, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the era), Seutin discovered that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her youth, that her child the girl died in childbirth in 1985, and that due to her banishment she hadn’t been able to attend her own mother’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are struggling like everyone,” says the choreographer.

Creation and Concepts

All these thoughts went into the making of the production (premiered in the city in 2023). Fortunately, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the concept for the piece was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, she highlights threads of her life story like memories, and references more broadly to the theme of displacement and dispossession nowadays. While it’s not explicit in the show, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of characters connected to the icon to greet this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in the show.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented dancers appear possessed by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s dance composition incorporates multiple styles of movement she has absorbed over the time, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including street styles like the form.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the cast didn’t already know about the artist. (She died in the year after having a heart attack on the platform in Italy.) Why should new audiences discover the legend? “I think she would inspire the youth to stand for what they are, speaking the truth,” says the choreographer. “But she accomplished this very gracefully. She’d say something poignant and then sing a lovely melody.” Seutin wanted to take the same approach in this production. “Audiences observe dancing and listen to beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but mixed with powerful ideas and instances that hit. That’s what I respect about her. Since if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They retreat. Yet she achieved it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• The performance is at London, 22-24 October