“When you speak about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s akin to referring about a sovereign,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, Makeba additionally associated in Greenwich Village with jazz greats like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a teenager dispatched to labor to support her family in Johannesburg, she later became a diplomat for Ghana, then the country’s representative to the United Nations. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a activist. Her remarkable story and impact motivate Seutin’s latest work, the performance, set for its British debut.
A Fusion of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word
The show merges dance, instrumental performances, and spoken word in a theatrical piece that is not a straightforward biodrama but utilizes her past, especially her story of exile: after relocating to the city in the year, she was barred from her homeland for three decades due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was banned from the US after marrying activist her spouse. The show is like a ceremonial tribute, a reimagined memorial – some praise, part celebration, some challenge – with a exceptional vocalist Tutu Puoane leading bringing Makeba’s songs to dynamic existence.
Strength and elegance … Mimi’s Shebeen.
In the country, a shebeen is an unofficial gathering place for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, usually presided over by a shebeen queen. Makeba’s mother Christina was a shebeen queen who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Makeba was 18 days old. Incapable of covering the penalty, she went to prison for half a year, taking her baby with her, which is how her remarkable journey started – just one of the details Seutin discovered when researching Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” says Seutin, when they met in Brussels after a performance. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to study and work in the United Kingdom, where she established her company Vocab Dance. Her parent would sing Makeba’s songs, such as the tunes, when Seutin was a child, and dance to them in the home.
Melodies of liberation … the artist sings at the venue in the year.
A ten years back, her parent had the illness and was in medical care in London. “I paused my career for three months to look after her and she was constantly asking for Miriam Makeba. She was so happy when we were singing together,” Seutin recalls. “There was ample time to pass at the facility so I began investigating.” In addition to learning of her victorious homecoming to the nation in the year, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the era), she found that Makeba had been a someone who overcame illness in her teens, that her child the girl passed away in labor 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 achievements and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” says Seutin.
Development and Concepts
These reflections went into the making of the show (premiered in Brussels in 2023). Thankfully, her parent’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the work was to celebrate “loss, existence, and grief”. In this context, she pulls out elements of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and references more broadly to the theme of uprooting and loss today. While it’s not explicit in the performance, she had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of characters linked with Miriam Makeba to welcome this newcomer.”
Melodies of banishment … musicians in the show.
In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s home-brew, the skilled dancers appear possessed by rhythm, in harmony with the players on the platform. Seutin’s dance composition includes various forms of dance she has learned over the years, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the international cast’ personal styles, including urban dances like the form.
Honoring strength … the creator.
Seutin was surprised to find that some of the younger, non-South Africans in the cast were unaware about the artist. (Makeba died in the year after having a cardiac event on stage in the country.) Why should younger generations discover the legend? “I think she would inspire the youth to advocate what they are, expressing honesty,” remarks Seutin. “However she accomplished this very gracefully. She expressed something meaningful and then sing a beautiful song.” Seutin aimed to take the same approach in this work. “Audiences observe movement and hear melodies, an aspect of entertainment, but intertwined with powerful ideas and moments that hit. This is what I admire about Miriam. Because if you are being overly loud, people won’t listen. They back away. But she achieved it in a manner that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her ability.”
The performance is showing in London, the dates
