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“If you talk about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s similar to talking about a queen,” explains the choreographer. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally associated in New York with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a young person dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in the city, she later served as an envoy for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the United Nations. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. This rich life and legacy inspire Seutin’s latest work, the performance, set for its UK premiere.

The Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show combines movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that is not a straightforward biodrama but utilizes her past, particularly her story of exile: after moving to the city in the year, she was prohibited from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after marrying activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance is like a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – some praise, some festivity, some challenge – with a exceptional South African singer the performer leading reviving Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar gathering place for locally made drinks and lively conversation, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Her parent Christina was a proprietress who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was a newborn. Incapable of covering the fine, Christina was incarcerated for six months, taking her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life started – just one of the things Seutin learned when researching her story. “So many stories!” exclaims Seutin, when we meet in the city after a performance. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before relocating to study and work in the UK, where she founded her company the ensemble. Her parent would sing Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a youngster, and move along in the home.

Songs of freedom … the artist sings at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

A decade ago, her parent had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I paused my career for a quarter to take care of her and she was constantly requesting the singer. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” Seutin recalls. “I had so much time to pass at the facility so I began investigating.” As well as learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in 1990, after the release of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the era), she found that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that her child Bongi died in labor in 1985, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to be present at her parent’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you look at their success and you overlook that they are facing challenges like everyone,” says the choreographer.

Creation and Concepts

These reflections contributed to the making of the production (first staged in the city in the year). Thankfully, her parent’s treatment was effective, but the concept for the piece was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, she highlights elements of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and references more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. Although 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 other selves of characters connected to Miriam Makeba to welcome this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in the show.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s local drink, the multi-talented performers appear possessed by beat, in harmony with the musicians on the platform. Seutin’s choreography incorporates multiple styles of movement she has learned over the time, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including street styles like krump.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba died in the year after having a heart attack on stage in Italy.) Why should younger generations discover Mama Africa? “I think she would motivate young people to advocate what they believe in, expressing honesty,” remarks Seutin. “However she accomplished this very elegantly. She expressed something poignant and then sing a beautiful song.” Seutin aimed to adopt the same approach in this production. “We see movement and listen to melodies, an aspect of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and instances that hit. This is what I respect about her. Since if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They retreat. Yet she achieved it in a manner that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be graced by her ability.”

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