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“When you speak about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” remarks the choreographer. Known as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist also spent time in New York with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Starting as a young person sent to work to provide for her relatives in the city, she eventually became a diplomat for Ghana, then Guinea’s representative to the UN. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was married to a activist. This rich story and impact inspire the choreographer’s new production, the performance, scheduled for its British debut.

The Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen combines dance, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that isn’t a simple biography but utilizes her past, particularly her story of exile: after relocating to the city in 1959, Makeba was prohibited from South Africa for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the US after wedding activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance is like a ceremonial tribute, a reimagined memorial – some praise, part celebration, part provocation – with a fabulous South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving her music to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an under-the-radar venue for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, usually 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 18 days old. Incapable of covering the penalty, she was incarcerated for six months, bringing her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s remarkable journey started – just one of the details Seutin discovered when researching her story. “Numerous tales!” exclaims Seutin, when we meet in the city after a performance. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before relocating to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she founded her dance group the ensemble. Her parent would sing her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a child, and dance to them in the home.

Melodies of liberation … the artist performs at the venue in 1988.

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for a quarter to look after her and she was constantly asking for the singer. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” she remembers. “I had so much time to pass at the facility so I started researching.” In addition to reading about her victorious homecoming to the nation in the year, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the 1950s), Seutin found that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter the girl died in childbirth 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,” states the choreographer.

Development and Themes

All these thoughts went into the creation of the show (premiered in the city in the year). Thankfully, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the concept for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. In this context, Seutin pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more broadly to the idea of uprooting and loss today. Although it’s not overt in the show, she had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas connected to the icon to greet this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the skilled performers appear taken over by rhythm, in synthesis with the musicians on stage. Her choreography incorporates various forms 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.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin 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 2008 after having a heart attack on stage in Italy.) Why should younger generations learn about the legend? “In my view she would inspire the youth to stand for what they believe in, expressing honesty,” says Seutin. “But she accomplished this very gracefully. She expressed something poignant and then perform a lovely melody.” Seutin aimed to adopt the similar method in this work. “Audiences observe movement and hear beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. This is what I admire about Miriam. Since if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They back away. But she did it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

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