🔗 Share this article

“Discussing about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s similar to talking about a royal figure,” explains Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as Mama Africa, the iconic artist additionally associated in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a teenager dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she eventually served as an envoy for the nation, then the country’s representative to the UN. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. This remarkable story and impact motivate the choreographer’s latest work, Mimi’s Shebeen, scheduled for its UK premiere.

A Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show combines movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but utilizes Makeba’s history, especially her story of exile: after relocating to the city in the year, she was barred from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after marrying activist Stokely Carmichael. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, part celebration, some challenge – with a exceptional South African singer Tutu Puoane at the centre bringing Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … the production.

In the country, a shebeen is an unofficial gathering place for locally made drinks and lively conversation, usually presided over by a host. Her parent the matriarch was a proprietress who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the fine, Christina was incarcerated for six months, bringing her infant with her, which is how her eventful life started – just one of the details Seutin learned when researching her story. “Numerous tales!” says she, when we meet in Brussels after a performance. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she was raised there before relocating to learn and labor in the UK, where she founded her dance group the ensemble. Her South African mother would perform her music, such as the tunes, when she was a youngster, and dance to them in the living room.

Songs of freedom … the artist sings at the venue in the year.

A decade ago, her parent had the illness and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for a quarter to take care of her and she was always requesting Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” she remembers. “I had so much time to kill at the hospital so I began investigating.” In addition to reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in 1990, after the freedom of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the era), she found that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that her child Bongi died in childbirth in 1985, and that because of her exile she hadn’t been able to attend her parent’s memorial. “Observing individuals and you focus on their achievements and you forget that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” says Seutin.

Development and Themes

All these thoughts contributed to the creation of the production (premiered in Brussels in the year). Fortunately, her parent’s therapy was effective, but the idea for the piece was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, Seutin highlights threads of her life story like memories, and references more generally to the theme of uprooting and loss nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the show, she had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas linked with the icon to greet this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s local drink, the skilled performers appear possessed by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s dance composition incorporates various forms of movement she has absorbed over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including street styles like the form.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

She was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast didn’t already know about the artist. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a heart attack on stage in Italy.) Why should younger generations learn about the legend? “In my view she would motivate the youth to stand for what they believe in, expressing honesty,” says the choreographer. “However she did it very elegantly. She expressed something poignant and then sing a lovely melody.” Seutin aimed to take the similar method in this work. “Audiences observe movement and listen to beautiful songs, an element of entertainment, but mixed with strong messages and instances that hit. That’s what I admire about her. Since if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. Yet she achieved it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is at the city, the dates