Celebrating Miriam Makeba: The Journey of a Fearless Singer Told in a Daring Theatrical Performance

“If you talk about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s similar to talking about a sovereign,” remarks the choreographer. Called the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist also 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 eventually became a diplomat for Ghana, then the country’s representative to the UN. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This remarkable life and legacy inspire the choreographer’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its UK premiere.

A Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show combines dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that isn’t a simple biography but draws on Makeba’s history, particularly her story of exile: after relocating to New York in the year, she was prohibited from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was banned from the US after wedding Black Panther activist her spouse. The show resembles a ceremonial tribute, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, some festivity, part provocation – with a fabulous South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre bringing her music to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial venue for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually presided over by a shebeen queen. Her parent the matriarch was a proprietress who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the fine, Christina went to prison for half a year, taking her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life began – just one of the things the choreographer learned when researching Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” exclaims she, when we meet in the city after a show. Seutin’s parent is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before relocating to learn and labor in the UK, where she established her company the ensemble. Her South African mother would sing Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a child, and move along in the home.

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

A decade ago, her parent had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I stopped working for a quarter to look after her and she was always requesting Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were singing together,” Seutin remembers. “There was ample time to pass at the hospital so I began investigating.” As well as reading about her victorious homecoming to South Africa in the year, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), she found that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi died in labor in 1985, and that because of 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 anyone else,” states the choreographer.

Creation and Concepts

These reflections went into the creation of the production (premiered in the city in the year). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was successful, but the idea for the piece was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, Seutin pulls out elements of her life story like flashbacks, 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 second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “And we gather as these alter egos of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to welcome this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the multi-talented performers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s choreography incorporates various forms of dance she has absorbed over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

She was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the cast didn’t already know about the singer. (She passed away in 2008 after having a cardiac event on stage in the country.) Why should younger generations discover the legend? “In my view she would inspire young people to stand for what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “However she accomplished this very gracefully. She expressed something meaningful and then sing a lovely melody.” She wanted to take the similar method in this work. “We see movement and listen to melodies, an aspect of enjoyment, but intertwined with strong messages and moments that resonate. That’s what I admire about her. Since if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They retreat. But she achieved it in a way that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• The performance is at the city, the dates