🔗 Share this article

“Discussing about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s similar to talking about a royal figure,” explains the choreographer. Referred to as Mama Africa, the iconic artist also associated in New York with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a young person sent to work to provide for her relatives in the city, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the UN. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a Black Panther. This remarkable story and impact motivate Seutin’s new production, Mimi’s Shebeen, set for its UK premiere.

The Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen merges movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but utilizes her past, particularly her story of exile: after relocating to the city in the year, Makeba was prohibited from South Africa for 30 years due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was banned from the US after marrying activist Stokely Carmichael. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, some festivity, part provocation – with the fabulous vocalist the performer at the centre bringing her music to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial gathering place for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, often managed by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother Christina was a proprietress who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was 18 days old. Unable to pay the fine, she was incarcerated for half a year, taking her infant with her, which is how her remarkable journey began – just one of the things Seutin learned when researching her story. “So many stories!” says Seutin, when they met in the city after a performance. Seutin’s parent is Belgian and she was raised there before moving to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she founded her dance group Vocab Dance. Her parent would sing Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a youngster, and move along in the home.

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

A decade ago, her parent 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 asking for the singer. She was so happy when we were singing together,” she remembers. “There was ample time to kill at the hospital so I started researching.” As well as learning of her victorious homecoming to South Africa in the year, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the era), Seutin found that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi died in childbirth in 1985, and that because of her exile she could not attend her own mother’s funeral. “You see people and you look at their success and you overlook that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” says the choreographer.

Development and Themes

All these thoughts went into the creation of the production (premiered in the city in the year). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the work was to honor “death, life and mourning”. In this context, Seutin pulls out threads of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and nods more broadly to the theme of uprooting and loss today. Although it’s not explicit in the show, she had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “And we gather as these alter egos of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s home-brew, the multi-talented dancers appear possessed by beat, in synthesis with the musicians on the platform. Her choreography incorporates various forms of dance she has learned over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like the form.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the cast didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba died in the year after having a cardiac event on stage in the country.) Why should younger generations discover the legend? “I think she would inspire the youth to stand for what they are, expressing honesty,” remarks Seutin. “However she accomplished this very gracefully. She expressed something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin wanted to adopt the same approach in this production. “Audiences observe dancing and listen to melodies, an aspect of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and instances that hit. This is what I respect about Miriam. Since if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They retreat. But she did it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

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