Honoring Miriam Makeba: A Struggle of a Fearless Singer Portrayed in a Daring Dance Drama

“If you talk about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” explains Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as Mama Africa, Makeba additionally spent time in New York with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Beginning as a teenager sent to work to support her family in the city, she later served as an envoy for Ghana, then Guinea’s official delegate to the United Nations. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was the wife to a Black Panther. This rich life and legacy inspire the choreographer’s new production, the performance, scheduled for its British debut.

The Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show combines dance, live music, and spoken word in a theatrical piece that is not a simple biography but draws on Makeba’s history, especially her story of exile: after relocating to New York in the year, Makeba was barred from South Africa for 30 years due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was excluded from the United States after wedding activist Stokely Carmichael. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – some praise, part celebration, some challenge – with a fabulous vocalist the performer leading reviving her music to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … Mimi’s Shebeen.

In South Africa, a shebeen is an unofficial gathering place for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, often managed by a shebeen queen. Her parent Christina was a shebeen queen who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the penalty, she went to prison for half a year, bringing her infant with her, which is how her remarkable journey began – just one of the details the choreographer discovered when researching Makeba’s life. “Numerous tales!” says Seutin, when they met in the city after a performance. Her parent is Belgian and she was raised there before relocating to learn and labor in the UK, where she founded her dance group Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would perform Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when she was a child, and move along in the home.

Songs of freedom … the artist sings at Wembley Stadium in the year.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in hospital in the city. “I paused my career for three months to look after her and she was constantly requesting Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were singing together,” she remembers. “I had so much time to pass at the facility so I started researching.” In addition to reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to the nation in the year, after the release of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the era), Seutin found that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that her child the girl passed away in labor in 1985, and that due to her banishment she hadn’t been able to be present at her parent’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you look at their success and you overlook that they are facing challenges like everyone,” states the choreographer.

Development and Concepts

These reflections went into the making of the show (first staged in the city in 2023). Thankfully, her parent’s treatment was effective, but the idea for the piece was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, Seutin pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like memories, and nods more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the show, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas connected to the icon to welcome this newcomer.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in Mimi’s Shebeen.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the skilled dancers appear taken over by rhythm, in harmony with the players on stage. Seutin’s dance composition incorporates multiple styles of dance she has learned over the time, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

She was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast were unaware about the singer. (She passed away in 2008 after having a heart attack on stage in Italy.) Why should younger generations discover Mama Africa? “In my view she would inspire the youth to stand for what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “However she did it very elegantly. She’d say something meaningful and then perform a lovely melody.” Seutin wanted to take the similar method in this work. “We see movement and listen to beautiful songs, an element of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that hit. This is what I respect about Miriam. Because if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. But she did it in a way that you would receive it, and understand it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

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