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“When you speak about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a queen,” remarks the choreographer. Known as Mama Africa, the iconic artist also associated in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Starting as a teenager sent to work to support her family in the city, she eventually became a diplomat for Ghana, then the country’s official delegate to the United Nations. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This rich life and legacy motivate the choreographer’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its UK premiere.

The Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges movement, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a theatrical piece that isn’t a simple biography but utilizes her past, especially her experience of banishment: after relocating to New York in the year, Makeba was prohibited from her homeland for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was excluded from the US after marrying Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, some festivity, some challenge – with a exceptional South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial venue for locally made drinks and lively conversation, usually presided over by a host. Her parent Christina was a shebeen queen who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was a newborn. Unable to pay the penalty, she was incarcerated for half a year, taking her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s remarkable journey started – just one of the details Seutin learned when researching Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” exclaims she, when they met in the city after a performance. Seutin’s parent is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before relocating to learn and labor in the UK, where she established her company Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would perform Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a child, and move along in the living room.

Songs of freedom … the artist sings at Wembley Stadium in the year.

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was always requesting Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” Seutin remembers. “There was ample time to kill at the facility so I started researching.” In addition to learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in the year, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the era), she found that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi passed away in labor in the year, and that due to her banishment she could not attend her parent’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you focus on their success and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Creation and Concepts

These reflections contributed to the making of the production (first staged in the city in the year). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was successful, but the idea for the work was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, Seutin pulls out elements of her life story like flashbacks, and references more generally to the idea of displacement and dispossession today. While it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “And we gather as these alter egos of characters connected to Miriam Makeba to greet this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented performers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the musicians on stage. Her dance composition includes multiple styles of movement she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … the creator.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the singer. (Makeba passed away in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in Italy.) Why should younger generations discover the legend? “I think she would inspire the youth to stand for what they believe in, expressing honesty,” says Seutin. “However she did it very gracefully. She’d say something meaningful and then sing a lovely melody.” She wanted to adopt the same approach in this production. “Audiences observe dancing and hear melodies, an element of enjoyment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and instances that resonate. This is what I respect about her. Because if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They retreat. Yet she did it in a way that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• The performance is at the city, 22-24 October