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“When you speak about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s akin to referring about a royal figure,” states the choreographer. Called Mama Africa, the iconic artist additionally spent time in New York with jazz greats like prominent artists. Starting as a teenager dispatched to labor to support her family in Johannesburg, she eventually became a diplomat for Ghana, then Guinea’s representative to the United Nations. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was married to a activist. This remarkable story and impact inspire Seutin’s new production, the performance, scheduled for its UK premiere.

The Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen merges dance, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on her past, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to New York in the year, she was barred from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was excluded from the United States after marrying activist her spouse. The performance resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, part celebration, part provocation – with the exceptional vocalist the performer at the centre reviving her music to vibrant life.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial gathering place for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Her parent the matriarch was a proprietress who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the penalty, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life started – just one of the details Seutin learned when studying her story. “So many stories!” exclaims Seutin, when we meet in Brussels after a show. Her parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before relocating to study and work in the UK, where she established her company Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would perform her music, such as the tunes, when she was a child, and move along in the living room.

Songs of freedom … Miriam Makeba sings at the venue in 1988.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in medical care in London. “I stopped working for a quarter to look after her and she was constantly asking for Miriam Makeba. 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.” As well as reading about her victorious homecoming to South Africa in the year, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a young lawyer in the 1950s), she discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that her child Bongi died in labor in the year, and that because of her banishment she could not be present at her own mother’s memorial. “You see people and you look at their success and you overlook that they are facing challenges like everyone,” states the choreographer.

Creation and Themes

These reflections went into the creation of the show (premiered in the city in 2023). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was effective, but the idea for the piece was to honor “death, life and mourning”. In this context, Seutin pulls out 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 modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “And we gather as these alter egos of characters connected to Miriam Makeba to welcome this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in the show.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s home-brew, the multi-talented dancers appear possessed by beat, in synthesis with the musicians on stage. Her choreography includes multiple styles of dance she has learned over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including street styles like the form.

Honoring strength … the creator.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the group 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 discover the legend? “In my view she would motivate young people to advocate what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says the choreographer. “But she did it very elegantly. She’d say something meaningful and then perform a beautiful song.” She aimed to take the similar method in this work. “Audiences observe dancing and hear melodies, an element of enjoyment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. That’s what I admire about Miriam. Because if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They retreat. But she achieved it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• The performance is showing in the city, the dates