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“When you speak about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s similar to talking about a royal figure,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Called Mama Africa, Makeba also associated in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a young person dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she later served as an envoy for Ghana, then the country’s representative to the UN. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was married to a Black Panther. Her remarkable story and impact inspire Seutin’s latest work, the performance, set for its British debut.

A Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen combines movement, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a stage work that isn’t a simple biography but utilizes her past, especially her experience of banishment: after relocating to New York in the year, she was barred from South Africa for 30 years due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after marrying Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – some praise, some festivity, part provocation – with the exceptional vocalist Tutu Puoane at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an under-the-radar gathering place for locally made drinks and lively conversation, usually presided over by a host. Her parent Christina was a proprietress who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was a newborn. Incapable of covering the penalty, Christina went to prison for six months, taking her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the details the choreographer discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” exclaims Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she established her company the ensemble. Her South African mother would perform her music, such as the tunes, when she was a child, and dance to them in the living room.

Melodies of liberation … Miriam Makeba performs at the venue in the year.

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in medical care in London. “I stopped working for a quarter to look after her and she was always asking for the singer. She was so happy when we were singing together,” Seutin recalls. “I had so much time to pass at the facility so I began investigating.” In addition to reading about her victorious homecoming to South Africa in 1990, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the 1950s), Seutin discovered that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter the girl passed away in labor in the year, and that due to her banishment she hadn’t been able to be present at her parent’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you overlook that they are facing challenges like everyone,” states the choreographer.

Creation and Concepts

All these thoughts went into the creation of the production (first staged in Brussels in the year). Fortunately, her parent’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the work was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, she pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and nods more broadly to the idea of uprooting and loss today. Although it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of characters connected to the icon to welcome this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in the show.

In the performance, 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. Seutin’s dance composition incorporates multiple styles of movement she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including street styles like the form.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

She was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the cast were unaware about the singer. (She died in 2008 after having a cardiac event on stage in Italy.) Why should new audiences discover Mama Africa? “In my view she would motivate young people to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “However she accomplished this very gracefully. She’d say something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” She wanted to take the same approach in this production. “We see movement and hear beautiful songs, an element of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that hit. That’s what I respect about Miriam. Because if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she did it in a manner that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• The performance is at London, 22-24 October