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“Discussing about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s akin to referring about a queen,” states the choreographer. Called the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist also spent time in Greenwich Village 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 served as an envoy for the nation, then the country’s representative to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This remarkable life and legacy motivate Seutin’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its British debut.

A Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

Mimi’s Shebeen merges movement, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a stage work that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but utilizes her past, particularly her story of exile: after moving to New York in the year, Makeba was prohibited from South Africa for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was banned from the US after wedding activist Stokely Carmichael. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, part celebration, part provocation – with a fabulous South African singer the performer at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar gathering place for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Her parent the matriarch was a proprietress who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the penalty, she was incarcerated for half a year, bringing her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life started – just one of the things the choreographer discovered when researching her story. “Numerous tales!” exclaims she, when we meet in the city after a show. Her parent is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before relocating to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she founded her company the ensemble. Her parent would perform Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a youngster, and move along in the home.

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

A decade ago, her parent had the illness and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for a quarter to look after her and she was always asking for the singer. It delighted her when we were singing together,” Seutin remembers. “I had so much time to pass at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to reading about her victorious homecoming to South Africa in 1990, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), Seutin found that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter the girl died in labor in the year, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to be present at her own mother’s funeral. “You see people and you look at their success and you overlook that they are struggling like everyone,” says the choreographer.

Development and Concepts

These reflections went into the making of the production (premiered in the city in the year). Fortunately, her parent’s treatment was effective, but the concept for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. In this context, Seutin pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more broadly to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. While it’s not explicit in the show, she had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas connected to Miriam Makeba to welcome this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s local drink, the multi-talented dancers appear taken over by beat, in synthesis with the players on the platform. Her choreography incorporates various forms of dance she has learned over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast didn’t already know about the singer. (Makeba passed away in the year after having a cardiac event on stage in the country.) Why should new audiences discover the legend? “In my view she would motivate young people to advocate what they believe in, speaking the truth,” remarks the choreographer. “But she accomplished this very gracefully. She expressed something meaningful and then sing a beautiful song.” Seutin wanted to take the similar method in this work. “We see movement and hear beautiful songs, an element of entertainment, but mixed with powerful ideas and moments that hit. That’s what I admire about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. Yet she achieved it in a manner that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• The performance is at the city, 22-24 October