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“If you talk about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a queen,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Known as Mama Africa, the iconic artist additionally spent time in New York with jazz greats like prominent artists. Beginning as a teenager sent to work to support her family in the city, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then the country’s official delegate to the United Nations. An vocal anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a activist. This remarkable life and legacy inspire Seutin’s new production, the performance, set for its British debut.

The Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen combines dance, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a stage work that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but draws on her past, especially her story of exile: 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 banned from the United States after wedding activist Stokely Carmichael. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – some praise, part celebration, some challenge – with the fabulous South African singer the performer leading bringing her music to vibrant life.

Power and poise … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial venue for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, usually managed by a host. Her parent the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the fine, Christina went to prison for half a year, bringing her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s remarkable journey started – just one of the things the choreographer discovered when researching her story. “Numerous tales!” exclaims she, when they met in the city after a show. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to learn and labor in the UK, where she established her dance group the ensemble. Her parent would sing Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a child, and dance to them in the home.

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

A ten years back, her parent had the illness and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for three months to look after her and she was constantly requesting the singer. She was so happy when we were singing together,” Seutin remembers. “I had so much time to kill at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to reading about her victorious homecoming to the nation in 1990, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), she found that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her youth, that her child the girl died in labor in the year, and that due to her exile she hadn’t been able to be present at her own mother’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” states the choreographer.

Development and Concepts

These reflections went into the making of the show (premiered in the city in the year). Thankfully, her parent’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the work was to honor “death, life and mourning”. Within that, Seutin pulls out threads 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 performance, she had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “And we gather as these other selves of personas connected to Miriam Makeba to greet this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s local drink, the multi-talented performers appear taken over by beat, in synthesis with the players on the platform. Seutin’s dance composition includes multiple styles of dance she has learned over the time, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including street styles like the form.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group didn’t already know about the artist. (She passed away in 2008 after having a cardiac event on the platform in the country.) Why should new audiences discover the legend? “I think she would motivate young people to stand for what they believe in, expressing honesty,” remarks the choreographer. “However she did it very gracefully. She expressed something meaningful and then perform a beautiful song.” She aimed to adopt the same approach in this work. “We see dancing and hear melodies, an element of enjoyment, but mixed with strong messages and moments that hit. This is what I respect about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They back away. But she achieved it in a manner that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at the city, 22-24 October