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“When you speak about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” remarks the choreographer. Referred to as Mama Africa, the iconic artist additionally associated in New York with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a young person sent to work 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 anti-apartheid activist, she was the wife to a Black Panther. Her remarkable life and legacy motivate Seutin’s new production, the performance, set for its UK premiere.

A Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen merges movement, live music, and spoken word in a theatrical piece that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on Makeba’s history, particularly her story of exile: after relocating to New York in 1959, Makeba was prohibited from her homeland for 30 years due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was excluded from the United States after wedding Black Panther activist her spouse. The performance resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, part celebration, some challenge – with the exceptional vocalist the performer at the centre bringing her music to vibrant life.

Power and poise … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial venue for locally made drinks and animated discussions, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was a newborn. Incapable of covering the fine, Christina went to prison for six months, bringing her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s remarkable journey began – just one of the details Seutin learned when researching her story. “Numerous tales!” says Seutin, when we meet in the city after a show. Seutin’s parent is Belgian and she was raised there before moving to study and work in the UK, where she founded her company Vocab Dance. Her parent would sing her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a child, and move along in the home.

Songs of freedom … the artist performs at the venue in the year.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in hospital in London. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was always requesting the singer. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” she recalls. “There was ample time to pass at the facility so I started researching.” As well as reading about her victorious homecoming to the nation in 1990, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a young lawyer in the 1950s), she discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that her child Bongi died in labor in the year, and that because of her exile she hadn’t been able to attend her own mother’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you look at their success and you forget that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” states the choreographer.

Development and Concepts

All these thoughts contributed to the making of the production (premiered in the city in the year). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was effective, but the idea for the work was to honor “death, life and mourning”. In this context, she pulls out threads of her life story like memories, and references more broadly to the theme of uprooting and loss today. Although it’s not explicit in the performance, she had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of characters linked with the icon to welcome this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in the show.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented dancers appear possessed by beat, in synthesis with the players on stage. Her dance composition includes various forms of movement she has learned over the time, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including street styles like the form.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the artist. (She died in the year after having a cardiac event on the platform in the country.) Why should new audiences discover Mama Africa? “I think she would motivate young people to advocate what they believe in, speaking the truth,” remarks the choreographer. “However she accomplished this very elegantly. She expressed something poignant and then sing a lovely melody.” Seutin wanted to take the same approach in this work. “We see dancing and hear beautiful songs, an aspect of enjoyment, but mixed with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. This is what I respect about her. Because if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They back away. But she achieved it in a way that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

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