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“When you speak about Miriam Makeba in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a royal figure,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist also associated in New York with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a teenager sent to work to support her family in the city, she later served as an envoy for the nation, then the country’s official delegate to the UN. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was the wife to a activist. Her remarkable story and impact motivate Seutin’s latest work, the performance, scheduled for its UK premiere.

A Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show merges movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a simple biography but utilizes Makeba’s history, especially her story of exile: after moving 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 marrying Black Panther activist her spouse. The performance is like a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, part celebration, some challenge – with the fabulous vocalist the performer leading bringing Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Power and poise … the production.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial gathering place for locally made drinks and animated discussions, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a proprietress who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the penalty, Christina went to prison for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s remarkable journey began – just one of the things Seutin learned when studying her story. “Numerous tales!” says she, when they met in the city after a show. Her father is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before relocating to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she founded her dance group Vocab Dance. Her parent would perform her music, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a child, and move along in the living room.

Songs of freedom … Miriam Makeba sings at the venue in 1988.

A ten years back, her parent had cancer and was in hospital 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 performing as one,” Seutin recalls. “There was ample time to pass at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in the year, after the release of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the 1950s), Seutin found that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that her child the girl died in childbirth in 1985, and that because of her banishment she could not attend her parent’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you overlook that they are facing challenges like everyone,” states the choreographer.

Creation and Themes

These reflections went into the creation of the show (premiered in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the idea for the piece was to honor “death, life and mourning”. Within that, she highlights elements of her life story like memories, and nods more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. Although it’s not overt in the show, she had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “And we gather as these other selves of characters connected to the icon to greet this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in the show.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s home-brew, the skilled dancers appear possessed by beat, in synthesis with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s choreography incorporates multiple styles of movement she has learned over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including street styles like krump.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

She was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the singer. (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 the youth to stand for what they are, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “But she accomplished this very gracefully. She expressed something poignant and then sing a lovely melody.” Seutin aimed to take the similar method in this production. “Audiences observe movement and hear beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that hit. This is what I respect about her. Because if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. But she achieved it in a manner that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• The performance is showing in London, the dates