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“If you talk about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” states the choreographer. Known as the Empress of African Song, Makeba additionally spent time in New York with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a teenager sent to work to support her family in Johannesburg, she later served as an envoy for the nation, then the country’s official delegate to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. Her remarkable story and impact inspire the choreographer’s new production, the performance, scheduled for its UK premiere.

A Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show merges movement, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a stage work that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on Makeba’s history, 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 opposition to segregation. Later, she was excluded from the US after marrying Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, some festivity, some challenge – with the exceptional vocalist Tutu Puoane at the centre bringing Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar gathering place for locally made drinks and animated discussions, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother Christina was a shebeen queen who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the fine, she was incarcerated for half a year, taking her infant with her, which is how Miriam’s remarkable journey began – just one of the things the choreographer discovered when researching Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” says Seutin, when we meet in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before moving to learn and labor in the UK, where she established her dance group Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would sing Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a child, and dance to them in the living room.

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

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in medical care in London. “I stopped working for a quarter to look after her and she was always requesting the singer. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” Seutin recalls. “I had so much time to kill at the hospital so I started researching.” In addition to reading about Makeba’s triumphant return 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 discovered that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi died in labor in the year, and that due to her banishment she could not attend her parent’s funeral. “You see people and you look at their success and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” says the choreographer.

Creation and Themes

All these thoughts went into the creation of the show (first staged in the city in 2023). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the piece was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, Seutin highlights threads of her life story like memories, and references more generally to the idea of displacement and dispossession today. While it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas connected to the icon to welcome this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s local drink, the skilled performers appear taken over by rhythm, in synthesis with the players on the platform. Her choreography includes various forms of dance she has absorbed over the time, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including street styles like krump.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the artist. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a cardiac event on the platform in Italy.) Why should new audiences learn about Mama Africa? “In my view she would motivate the youth to stand for what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “But she did it very elegantly. She’d say something poignant and then sing a lovely melody.” She aimed to adopt the similar method in this work. “Audiences observe movement and hear melodies, an aspect of enjoyment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. That’s what I admire 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 accept it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• The performance is at London, 22-24 October