Honoring Miriam Makeba: A Journey of a Courageous Artist Portrayed in a Bold Theatrical Performance

“If you talk about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s akin to referring about a royal figure,” remarks the choreographer. Referred to as Mama Africa, the iconic artist also spent time in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Beginning as a young person sent to work to provide for her relatives in the city, she later became a diplomat for Ghana, then Guinea’s official delegate to the UN. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a activist. Her rich story and impact inspire the choreographer’s latest work, the performance, set for its UK premiere.

The Fusion of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show merges movement, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a stage work that isn’t a simple biography but utilizes her past, especially her story of exile: after relocating to the city in the year, Makeba was prohibited from South Africa for three decades due to her opposition to segregation. Subsequently, she was banned from the US after wedding activist her spouse. The show is like a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – part eulogy, some festivity, 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 South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial venue for home-brewed liquor and animated discussions, usually presided over by a host. Makeba’s mother Christina was a shebeen queen who was arrested for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was 18 days old. Unable to pay the fine, Christina went to prison for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how her eventful life began – just one of the things the choreographer learned when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” exclaims Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a show. Her father is Belgian and she mainly grew up there before moving to study and work in the UK, where she founded her dance group Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would perform Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a child, and dance to them in the home.

Melodies of liberation … Miriam Makeba performs at the venue in the year.

A ten years back, her parent had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I stopped working for a quarter to take care of her and she was constantly requesting the singer. It delighted her when we were singing together,” Seutin recalls. “There was ample time to pass at the facility so I started researching.” As well as learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in 1990, 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 breast cancer survivor in her teens, that her child Bongi died in childbirth in 1985, and that because of her banishment she could not be present at her own mother’s memorial. “You see people and you look at their success and you forget that they are facing challenges like everyone,” says Seutin.

Development and Themes

All these thoughts went into the creation of the production (premiered in Brussels in the year). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s therapy was effective, but the concept for the piece was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, Seutin highlights elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and references more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession today. While it’s not explicit in the performance, she had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a migrant. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of characters connected to the icon to greet this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the performance, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s home-brew, the skilled dancers appear taken over by beat, in synthesis with the players on stage. Seutin’s dance composition incorporates multiple styles of movement she has learned over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including street styles like krump.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

She was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group didn’t already know about the singer. (Makeba passed away in the year after having a cardiac event on stage in Italy.) Why should younger generations learn about the legend? “In my view she would inspire the youth to advocate what they are, expressing honesty,” says Seutin. “However she did it very elegantly. She’d say something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” She wanted to take the same approach in this work. “We see dancing and listen to melodies, an aspect of entertainment, but mixed with strong messages and moments that hit. That’s what I respect about Miriam. Since if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They retreat. But she did it in a manner that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• The performance is at the city, 22-24 October