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“When you speak about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s akin to referring about a queen,” explains Alesandra Seutin. Called the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally associated in New York with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a teenager dispatched to labor to support her family in Johannesburg, she eventually served as an envoy for Ghana, then the country’s official delegate to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. This remarkable life and legacy inspire Seutin’s new production, the performance, set for its British debut.

The Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show combines dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a simple biography but utilizes Makeba’s history, especially her story of exile: after relocating to New York in 1959, she was prohibited from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was banned from the United States after wedding activist her spouse. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – some praise, part celebration, some challenge – with a fabulous South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving her music to vibrant life.

Power and poise … the production.

In the country, a shebeen is an under-the-radar venue for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Her parent Christina was a proprietress who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was a newborn. Unable to pay the penalty, Christina went to prison for six months, taking her baby with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the things Seutin discovered when studying her story. “So many stories!” exclaims Seutin, when we meet in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before moving to study and work in the UK, where she established her company Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would sing Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a child, and move along in the home.

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

A decade ago, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in London. “I stopped working for three months to take care of her and she was always asking for Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were singing together,” she recalls. “There was ample time to pass at the hospital so I began investigating.” As well as learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in 1990, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the era), Seutin discovered that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter the girl passed away in childbirth in the year, and that due to her banishment she could not be present at her parent’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you look at their success and you overlook that they are struggling like everyone,” says Seutin.

Development and Concepts

All these thoughts contributed to the creation of the show (premiered in the city in the year). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was successful, but the idea for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. In this context, she pulls out threads of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more broadly to the theme of displacement and dispossession nowadays. Although it’s not overt in the show, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of characters connected to the icon to greet this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented performers appear taken over by beat, in synthesis with the musicians on the platform. Seutin’s choreography incorporates various forms of dance she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including street styles like krump.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

She was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group were unaware about the singer. (She passed away in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in Italy.) Why should new audiences discover Mama Africa? “I think she would motivate the youth to stand for what they are, expressing honesty,” remarks Seutin. “But she did it very elegantly. She expressed something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin wanted to take the same approach in this production. “Audiences observe movement and hear beautiful songs, an aspect of enjoyment, but mixed with strong messages and moments that hit. That’s what I respect about her. Since if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They retreat. Yet she achieved it in a way that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• The performance is showing in the city, the dates