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“If you talk about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s akin to referring about a sovereign,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Called Mama Africa, the iconic artist additionally spent time in New York with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a young person sent to work to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she eventually became a diplomat for the nation, then the country’s official delegate to the United Nations. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was married to a Black Panther. Her rich life and legacy inspire Seutin’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its British debut.

The Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show merges movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but utilizes Makeba’s history, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to New York in 1959, Makeba was prohibited from South Africa for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after marrying activist her spouse. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – some praise, part celebration, part provocation – with the fabulous South African singer the performer leading reviving her music to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a shebeen is an under-the-radar gathering place for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother Christina was a proprietress who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was a newborn. Unable to pay the penalty, she was incarcerated for half a year, bringing her infant with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the things the choreographer learned when researching Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” says Seutin, when we meet in the city after a show. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she was raised there before relocating to study and work in the UK, where she established her company the ensemble. Her parent would sing Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a child, and dance to them in the living room.

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

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in hospital in the city. “I paused my career for a quarter to take care of her and she was always asking for the singer. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” Seutin recalls. “There was ample time to kill at the facility so I began investigating.” As well as learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in 1990, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the era), Seutin found that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter the girl passed away in labor in the year, and that because of her banishment she could not attend her parent’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you overlook that they are struggling like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Development and Concepts

All these thoughts contributed to the creation of the show (premiered in Brussels in the year). Fortunately, her parent’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, Seutin highlights elements of her life story like flashbacks, and references more broadly to the idea of uprooting and loss nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the performance, she had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas linked with Miriam Makeba to welcome this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the multi-talented dancers appear possessed by rhythm, in synthesis with the players on the platform. Seutin’s dance composition includes multiple styles of movement she has learned over the years, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including street styles like krump.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group were unaware about the artist. (She passed away 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 believe in, expressing honesty,” says Seutin. “But she did it very elegantly. She’d say something poignant and then perform a lovely melody.” She wanted to adopt the same approach in this work. “Audiences observe movement and listen to beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but mixed with strong messages and moments that hit. That’s what I respect about her. Since if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They retreat. Yet she did it in a manner that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be graced by her talent.”

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