🔗 Share this article

“If you talk about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s similar to talking about a queen,” remarks the choreographer. Referred to as Mama Africa, Makeba additionally associated in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a young person sent to work to provide for her relatives in the city, she eventually became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s representative to the UN. An vocal anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a activist. Her remarkable story and impact motivate the choreographer’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its British debut.

The Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show combines movement, live music, and spoken word in a stage work that isn’t a simple biography but utilizes her past, particularly her story of exile: after moving to the city in the year, she was prohibited from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was excluded from the United States after wedding activist her spouse. The performance resembles a ceremonial tribute, a reimagined memorial – some praise, some festivity, part provocation – with the fabulous vocalist Tutu Puoane leading reviving Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … the production.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial venue for locally made drinks and lively conversation, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the fine, Christina went to prison for half a year, bringing her infant with her, which is how her remarkable journey began – just one of the details Seutin discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” exclaims Seutin, when they met in the city after a performance. Seutin’s parent is Belgian and she was raised there before moving to study and work in the UK, where she established her company the ensemble. Her South African mother would sing her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and dance to them in the living room.

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

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in hospital in London. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was always asking for Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” she recalls. “I had so much time to pass at the facility so I began investigating.” As well as reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in the year, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had met 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 died in labor in the year, and that because of her exile she hadn’t been able to be present at her parent’s memorial. “You see people and you focus on their success and you overlook that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Creation and Themes

All these thoughts contributed to the making of the show (premiered in the city in 2023). Thankfully, her parent’s treatment was successful, but the idea for the work was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, Seutin highlights elements of her life story like flashbacks, and references more generally to the theme 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 traveler. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to welcome this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in the show.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the skilled performers appear taken over by rhythm, in harmony with the players on the platform. Seutin’s choreography includes various forms of dance she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including street styles like krump.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the group didn’t already know about the artist. (She passed away in the year after having a cardiac event on the platform in Italy.) Why should younger generations discover Mama Africa? “I think she would motivate young people to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” remarks Seutin. “However she did it very gracefully. She’d say something meaningful and then perform a lovely melody.” Seutin aimed to adopt the same approach in this production. “Audiences observe movement and hear beautiful songs, an aspect of enjoyment, but intertwined with strong messages and instances that resonate. This is what I admire about Miriam. Since if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she did it in a way that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• The performance is at London, the dates