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“When you speak about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a queen,” explains the choreographer. Referred to as Mama Africa, the iconic artist also associated in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like prominent artists. Starting as a young person sent to work to provide for her relatives in the city, she later became a diplomat for the nation, then the country’s representative to the United Nations. An vocal campaigner against segregation, she was married to a activist. This rich story and impact inspire the choreographer’s new production, the performance, set for its British debut.

The Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a stage work that is not a simple biography but utilizes Makeba’s history, particularly her story of exile: after moving to the city in 1959, Makeba was barred from South Africa for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was banned from the US after marrying activist her spouse. The show resembles a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – part eulogy, part celebration, some challenge – with the exceptional South African singer Tutu Puoane leading reviving her music to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In the country, a shebeen is an under-the-radar venue for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, often presided over by a shebeen queen. Her parent Christina was a shebeen queen who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was a newborn. Unable to pay the fine, she was incarcerated for six months, bringing her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey began – just one of the details the choreographer learned when studying her story. “Numerous tales!” exclaims Seutin, when they met in the city after a show. Seutin’s father is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before moving to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she founded her company Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would perform her music, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a child, and dance to them in the home.

Melodies of liberation … Miriam Makeba sings at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was always requesting Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” Seutin remembers. “There was ample time to pass at the hospital so I started researching.” As well as learning of her victorious homecoming to South Africa in the year, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), Seutin found that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that her child Bongi passed away in labor in 1985, and that due to her banishment she hadn’t been able to be present at her parent’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” states Seutin.

Development and Concepts

These reflections went into the making of the production (first staged in the city in the year). Fortunately, her parent’s treatment was effective, but the idea for the work was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, Seutin pulls out threads of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more broadly to the idea of displacement and dispossession nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the performance, she had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “And we gather as these other selves of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … musicians in the show.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s home-brew, the multi-talented dancers appear taken over by beat, in synthesis with the musicians on the platform. Her dance composition includes various forms of dance she has learned over the years, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including street styles like krump.

A celebration of resilience … the creator.

She was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast were unaware about the singer. (She died in 2008 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 advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “But she accomplished this very gracefully. She’d say something poignant and then perform a lovely melody.” She wanted to adopt the same approach in this work. “We see dancing and hear melodies, an element of entertainment, but mixed with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. That’s what I admire about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They retreat. But she did it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• The performance is showing in London, 22-24 October