🔗 Share this article

“Discussing about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s like speaking about a queen,” states the choreographer. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally associated in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Beginning as a teenager sent to work to support her family in Johannesburg, she later served as an envoy for the nation, then the country’s representative to the United Nations. An vocal anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a activist. This remarkable story and impact motivate the choreographer’s new production, the performance, set for its British debut.

The Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

Mimi’s Shebeen combines dance, live music, and spoken word in a stage work that is not a simple biography but utilizes her past, particularly her story of exile: after moving to the city in the year, she was prohibited from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was excluded from the United States after wedding activist her spouse. The performance resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, part celebration, part provocation – with a fabulous vocalist Tutu Puoane leading reviving her music to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar venue for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Her parent the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the penalty, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the details the choreographer discovered when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” says she, when we meet in the city after a performance. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she founded her dance group the ensemble. Her parent would perform Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when she was a child, and move along in the living room.

Songs of freedom … the artist performs at the venue in 1988.

A decade ago, Seutin’s mother had cancer and was in medical care in the city. “I stopped working for three months to take care of her and she was always asking for Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were singing together,” she recalls. “I had so much time to pass at the facility so I began investigating.” As well as reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in the year, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the era), Seutin discovered that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that her child Bongi passed away in childbirth in the year, and that due to her banishment she hadn’t been able to attend her own mother’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you look at their success and you overlook that they are struggling like anyone else,” says the choreographer.

Creation and Themes

These reflections went into the creation of the show (first staged in Brussels in the year). Fortunately, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the idea for the piece was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, she highlights elements of her life story like memories, and nods more generally to the theme of uprooting and loss today. Although it’s not overt in the show, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “And we gather as these alter egos of characters connected to the icon to welcome this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s home-brew, the skilled dancers appear possessed by beat, in synthesis with the musicians on stage. Seutin’s choreography includes multiple styles of dance she has absorbed over the years, including from African nations, plus the international cast’ own vocabularies, including street styles like krump.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

She was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the group didn’t already know about the artist. (She passed away in 2008 after having a cardiac event on the platform in the country.) Why should younger generations learn about Mama Africa? “I think she would motivate young people to advocate what they believe in, expressing honesty,” remarks Seutin. “But she did it very gracefully. She expressed something poignant and then sing a lovely melody.” She wanted to take the similar method in this production. “We see movement and hear melodies, an aspect of enjoyment, but mixed with strong messages and moments that resonate. That’s what I admire about Miriam. Because if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They retreat. But she did it in a way that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• Mimi’s Shebeen is showing in the city, 22-24 October