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“If you talk about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s like speaking about a queen,” states Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, Makeba also associated in New York with jazz greats like prominent artists. Beginning as a teenager sent to work to support her family in the city, she eventually became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This rich story and impact inspire Seutin’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its British debut.

The Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen combines dance, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a stage work that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but draws on Makeba’s history, especially her story of exile: after moving to the city in the year, Makeba was barred from her homeland for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was excluded from the United States after marrying activist her spouse. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – some praise, some festivity, some challenge – with a exceptional vocalist Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a shebeen is an under-the-radar venue for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually presided over by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was a newborn. Unable to pay the penalty, she was incarcerated for six months, taking her infant with her, which is how her remarkable journey began – just one of the details the choreographer discovered when researching her story. “Numerous tales!” says she, when we meet in the city after a show. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before moving to study and work in the UK, where she founded her dance group Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would perform 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 sings at Wembley Stadium in the year.

A ten years back, her parent had cancer and was in hospital in the city. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was always asking for Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were singing together,” she remembers. “There was ample time to pass at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to learning of her victorious homecoming to the nation in 1990, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a young lawyer in the era), Seutin discovered that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that her child Bongi passed away in labor in 1985, and that due to her exile she hadn’t been able to be present at her own mother’s memorial. “You see people and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Creation and Concepts

These reflections contributed to the making of the production (first staged in Brussels in the year). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the piece was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, she highlights elements of her life story like memories, and nods more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession nowadays. While it’s not overt in the show, she had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “And we gather as these other selves of personas linked with Miriam Makeba to greet this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented dancers appear possessed by rhythm, in synthesis with the players on stage. Her choreography includes various forms of movement she has absorbed over the years, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including street styles like krump.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast didn’t already know about the artist. (She passed away in 2008 after having a cardiac event on the platform in Italy.) Why should younger generations discover Mama Africa? “In my view she would motivate young people to stand for what they believe in, expressing honesty,” remarks Seutin. “However she did it very gracefully. She expressed something meaningful and then perform a beautiful song.” She wanted to take the similar method in this work. “We see movement and listen to beautiful songs, an aspect of enjoyment, but intertwined with strong messages and moments that resonate. This is what I admire about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They retreat. But she did it in a way that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at London, the dates