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“When you speak about Miriam Makeba in the nation, it’s similar to talking about a royal figure,” explains Alesandra Seutin. Called Mama Africa, Makeba also associated in New York with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Starting as a young person sent to work to support her family in the city, she eventually served as an envoy for Ghana, then Guinea’s official delegate to the United Nations. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a Black Panther. This remarkable life and legacy motivate Seutin’s new production, the performance, set for its British debut.

A Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges movement, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a stage work that isn’t a simple biography but utilizes Makeba’s history, particularly her story of exile: after relocating to the city in 1959, Makeba was prohibited from her homeland for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was excluded from the United States after marrying Black Panther activist her spouse. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – some praise, part celebration, some challenge – with a exceptional vocalist the performer leading bringing her music to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … the production.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial venue for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a proprietress who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was a newborn. Incapable of covering the fine, Christina went to prison for half a year, taking her infant with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the things Seutin discovered when researching her story. “So many stories!” says Seutin, when they met in the city after a performance. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before moving to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she established her company Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would perform Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a youngster, and move along in the home.

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

A decade ago, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for a quarter to look after her and she was constantly asking for Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” Seutin remembers. “There was ample time to pass at the facility so I began investigating.” In addition to reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in the year, after the release of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the era), she discovered that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that her child Bongi died in childbirth in 1985, and that because of her banishment she could not attend her own mother’s funeral. “You see people and you focus on their achievements and you overlook that they are facing challenges like everyone,” states Seutin.

Development and Concepts

These reflections went into the making of the show (first staged in the city in the year). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was successful, but the idea for the work was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, Seutin pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and references more broadly to the idea of displacement and dispossession today. While it’s not explicit in the performance, she had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of personas linked with the icon to welcome this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in the show.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s home-brew, the skilled performers appear possessed by rhythm, in synthesis with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s choreography incorporates multiple styles of movement she has absorbed over the time, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including street styles like krump.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba died in the year after having a heart attack on the platform in the country.) Why should new audiences learn about the legend? “I think she would inspire young people to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “But she accomplished this very elegantly. She expressed something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” She aimed to adopt the similar method in this production. “We see dancing and listen to beautiful songs, an element of enjoyment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and instances that resonate. This is what I admire about Miriam. Because if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They back away. But she achieved it in a manner that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her talent.”

• The performance is at the city, the dates