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“If you talk about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a royal figure,” remarks the choreographer. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, Makeba additionally associated in New York with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a teenager dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she eventually became a diplomat for the nation, then the country’s representative to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. Her rich life and legacy inspire Seutin’s latest work, the performance, set for its UK premiere.

A Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show combines dance, live music, and spoken word in a theatrical piece that is not a simple biography but draws on her past, especially her story of exile: after relocating to New York in the year, she was prohibited from her homeland for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was excluded from the United States after wedding activist Stokely Carmichael. The show is like a ceremonial tribute, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, part celebration, some challenge – with the fabulous South African singer Tutu Puoane leading reviving her music to vibrant life.

Power and poise … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial gathering place for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, often presided over by a host. Makeba’s mother Christina was a proprietress who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was a newborn. Unable to pay the fine, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the things Seutin learned when researching her story. “So many stories!” exclaims Seutin, when they met in the city after a show. Her father is from Belgium and she was raised there before relocating to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she established her company the ensemble. Her parent would perform her music, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a child, and dance to them in the living room.

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

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in medical care in the city. “I stopped working for a quarter to look after her and she was always asking for the singer. She was so happy when we were performing as one,” she remembers. “There was ample time to pass at the facility so I began investigating.” 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 legal professional in the era), Seutin discovered that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her youth, that her child Bongi passed away in childbirth in the year, and that due to her exile she could not be present at her parent’s funeral. “You see people and you look at their achievements and you forget that they are struggling like everyone,” states Seutin.

Development and Themes

These reflections went into the making of the show (first staged in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was successful, but the idea for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, she highlights elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and nods more broadly to the theme of uprooting and loss today. While it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “And we gather as these alter egos of characters connected to the icon to greet this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the multi-talented dancers appear possessed by rhythm, in synthesis with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s choreography includes various forms of movement she has learned over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including street styles like the form.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast didn’t already know about the artist. (She died in the year after having a cardiac event on stage in Italy.) Why should new audiences learn about Mama Africa? “I think she would motivate young people to stand for what they believe in, expressing honesty,” remarks the choreographer. “But she did it very gracefully. She’d say something poignant and then sing a lovely melody.” She aimed to take the similar method in this production. “We see movement and hear beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but mixed with strong messages and instances that resonate. That’s what I respect about her. Because if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They retreat. Yet she achieved it in a manner that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

• The performance is at London, 22-24 October