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“If you talk about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s akin to referring about a royal figure,” states the choreographer. Referred to as Mama Africa, Makeba also spent time in New York with jazz greats like prominent artists. Starting as a teenager dispatched to labor to support her family in the city, she later became a diplomat for Ghana, then the country’s official delegate to the UN. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. Her remarkable story and impact inspire the choreographer’s latest work, the performance, scheduled for its British debut.

The Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen combines dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but draws on her past, particularly her story of exile: after moving to New York in the year, Makeba was prohibited from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was banned from the US after wedding activist her spouse. The show resembles a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, part celebration, some challenge – with a exceptional vocalist Tutu Puoane leading reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … the production.

In the country, a shebeen is an unofficial venue for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, often managed by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was a newborn. Incapable of covering the fine, she was incarcerated for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how her eventful life began – just one of the details Seutin learned when researching Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” says she, when we meet in the city after a show. Seutin’s father is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before moving to learn and labor in the UK, where she founded her dance group the ensemble. Her South African mother would perform Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and dance to them in the home.

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

A decade ago, her parent had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I stopped working for three months to take care of her and she was constantly requesting Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were singing together,” Seutin recalls. “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 1990, after the release of the leader (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), Seutin found that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter the girl died in labor in 1985, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to attend her parent’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you look at their achievements and you overlook that they are struggling like anyone else,” says the choreographer.

Development and Concepts

These reflections went into the making of the production (premiered in the city in the year). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was successful, but the concept for the work was to honor “death, life and mourning”. Within that, Seutin pulls out elements of her life story like memories, and references more broadly to the theme of uprooting and loss nowadays. While it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “And we gather as these other selves of personas connected to Miriam Makeba to welcome this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s home-brew, the multi-talented performers appear possessed by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on the platform. Seutin’s dance composition includes multiple styles of dance she has learned over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the cast were unaware about the artist. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in the country.) Why should younger generations learn about the legend? “I think she would motivate young people to stand for what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says the choreographer. “However she accomplished this very elegantly. She expressed something poignant and then perform a lovely melody.” Seutin wanted to take the similar method in this work. “Audiences observe movement and listen to melodies, an element of enjoyment, but mixed with powerful ideas and instances that hit. That’s what I respect about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They retreat. Yet she achieved it in a way that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

• The performance is at London, the dates