🔗 Share this article

“Discussing about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” states Alesandra Seutin. Known as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally associated in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like prominent artists. Beginning as a teenager dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in the city, she eventually became a diplomat for the nation, then the country’s representative to the UN. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a Black Panther. Her remarkable life and legacy inspire the choreographer’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its British debut.

The Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show combines dance, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a simple biography but draws on her past, particularly her experience of banishment: after relocating to the city in the year, she was barred from South Africa for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the US after wedding activist her spouse. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, some festivity, some challenge – with the fabulous vocalist the performer at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar venue for locally made drinks and lively conversation, usually presided over by a shebeen queen. Her parent Christina was a proprietress who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was a newborn. Unable to pay the penalty, Christina went to prison for six months, taking her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s eventful life started – just one of the things the choreographer discovered when researching Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” says Seutin, when they met in the city after a performance. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before relocating to study and work in the UK, where she founded her company the ensemble. Her parent would perform Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a child, and move along in the home.

Songs of freedom … the artist sings at the venue in 1988.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in hospital in the city. “I stopped working for three months to look after 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 facility so I started researching.” As well as reading about her victorious homecoming to South Africa in the year, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a young lawyer in the era), she discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi passed away in labor in the year, and that due to her exile she hadn’t been able to be present at her parent’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you look at their achievements and you overlook that they are facing challenges like everyone,” states Seutin.

Development and Themes

These reflections went into the creation of the show (premiered in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was effective, but the idea for the work was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, she pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and nods more broadly to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. Although it’s not overt in the performance, she had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to greet this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in the show.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s home-brew, the multi-talented performers appear taken over by beat, in harmony with the musicians on the platform. Her dance composition incorporates multiple styles of dance she has learned over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like the form.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

She was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group were unaware about the artist. (She passed away in the year after having a heart attack on stage in Italy.) Why should new audiences discover the legend? “I think she would inspire young people to stand for what they are, expressing honesty,” says the choreographer. “However she accomplished this very elegantly. She’d say something meaningful and then sing a lovely melody.” Seutin aimed to adopt the same approach in this work. “We see movement and listen to beautiful songs, an element of entertainment, but intertwined with strong messages and instances that hit. That’s what I respect about her. Because if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she did it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

• The performance is showing in London, the dates