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“If you talk about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s similar to talking about a sovereign,” remarks the choreographer. Known as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally associated in New York with renowned musicians like prominent artists. Starting as a teenager dispatched to labor to support her family in Johannesburg, she later 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 activist. Her remarkable life and legacy inspire the choreographer’s new production, the performance, set for its UK premiere.

The Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges dance, instrumental performances, and oral storytelling in a stage work that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but draws on her past, particularly her story of exile: after moving to the city in 1959, she was prohibited from South Africa for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was excluded from the US after wedding Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The show resembles a ceremonial tribute, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, part celebration, part provocation – with a fabulous vocalist Tutu Puoane leading bringing Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an unofficial gathering place for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, usually managed by a shebeen queen. Her parent the matriarch was a shebeen queen who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the fine, Christina went to prison for six months, bringing her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the details the choreographer learned when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” exclaims Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a performance. Seutin’s father is Belgian and she was raised there before moving to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she established her dance group Vocab Dance. Her parent would perform Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a youngster, and dance to them in the home.

Melodies of liberation … the artist sings at the venue in 1988.

A ten years back, Seutin’s mother had the illness and was in hospital in London. “I paused my career for a quarter to look after her and she was always requesting the singer. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” she recalls. “I had so much time to kill at the facility so I began investigating.” As well as reading about her victorious homecoming to the nation in the year, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had met when he was a young lawyer in the era), Seutin discovered that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that Makeba’s daughter Bongi passed away in childbirth in 1985, and that due to her exile she could not be present at her own mother’s memorial. “You see people and you look at their achievements and you forget that they are facing challenges like anyone else,” states Seutin.

Creation and Themes

These reflections went into the making of the production (premiered in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was effective, but the concept for the piece was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. Within that, she highlights elements of her life story like flashbacks, and nods more generally to the theme of displacement and dispossession nowadays. Although it’s not explicit in the performance, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “And we gather as these alter egos of personas linked with the icon to greet this young migrant.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in the show.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s local drink, the skilled dancers appear possessed by rhythm, in synthesis with the players on the platform. Seutin’s choreography includes various forms of dance she has learned over the years, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … the creator.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the group were unaware about the singer. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a heart attack on the platform in Italy.) Why should younger generations discover the legend? “In my view she would motivate the youth to advocate what they believe in, speaking the truth,” says the choreographer. “But she did it very elegantly. She’d say something meaningful and then sing a lovely melody.” Seutin aimed to take the similar method in this work. “We see dancing and listen to melodies, an aspect of enjoyment, but intertwined with strong messages and moments that hit. This is what I admire about Miriam. Because if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They retreat. But she did it in a way that you would accept it, and understand it, but still be graced by her talent.”

• The performance is at London, the dates