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“If you talk about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a sovereign,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Known as Mama Africa, Makeba additionally associated in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Beginning as a young person sent to work to support her family in the city, she eventually served as an envoy for the nation, then the country’s representative to the UN. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was married to a Black Panther. This remarkable story and impact motivate Seutin’s new production, the performance, set for its UK premiere.

The Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen combines dance, live music, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on her past, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to the city in 1959, she was barred from her homeland for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was excluded from the US after wedding Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance is like a ceremonial tribute, a reimagined memorial – some praise, part celebration, part provocation – with the fabulous South African singer the performer leading bringing Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar venue for locally made drinks and lively conversation, usually 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 went to prison for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the details the choreographer discovered when studying her story. “So many stories!” says she, when they met in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to learn and labor in the UK, where she founded her company the ensemble. 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 … Miriam Makeba performs at the venue in the year.

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for a quarter to look after her and she was constantly requesting the singer. It delighted her when we were singing together,” she remembers. “I had so much time to kill at the hospital so I started researching.” As well as learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in 1990, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a young lawyer in the 1950s), she discovered that she had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that her child the girl passed away in childbirth in 1985, and that because of her banishment she hadn’t been able to attend her parent’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you focus on their success and you overlook that they are struggling like everyone,” states the choreographer.

Development and Concepts

All these thoughts contributed to the making of the production (first staged in Brussels in the year). Thankfully, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the concept for the work was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, Seutin pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more generally to the theme of uprooting and loss nowadays. Although it’s not overt in the show, Seutin had in mind a additional character, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas connected to the icon to welcome this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s home-brew, the multi-talented performers appear taken over by beat, in synthesis with the musicians on the platform. Seutin’s dance composition includes multiple styles of dance she has absorbed over the time, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

She was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the cast didn’t already know about the artist. (She died in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in Italy.) Why should new audiences learn about Mama Africa? “I think she would inspire young people to advocate what they are, expressing honesty,” says Seutin. “But she accomplished this very elegantly. She expressed something meaningful and then perform a beautiful song.” She wanted to take the same approach in this work. “Audiences observe movement and hear melodies, an element of enjoyment, but mixed with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. That’s what I respect about Miriam. Since if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They retreat. But she achieved it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• The performance is showing in the city, 22-24 October