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“If you talk about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” remarks Alesandra Seutin. Referred to as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist additionally associated in New York with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a young person dispatched to labor to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she later served as an envoy for Ghana, then the country’s official delegate to the United Nations. An outspoken anti-apartheid activist, she was married to a Black Panther. Her remarkable life and legacy motivate the choreographer’s new production, the performance, scheduled for its UK premiere.

A Blend of Movement, Sound, and Narration

The show combines movement, live music, and oral storytelling in a theatrical piece that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but utilizes her past, especially her experience of banishment: after moving to the city in 1959, she was barred from South Africa for 30 years due to her anti-apartheid stance. Subsequently, she was banned from the United States after marrying Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a reimagined memorial – some praise, some festivity, some challenge – with the exceptional South African singer the performer at the centre bringing her music to dynamic existence.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In the country, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar venue for locally made drinks and animated discussions, usually presided over by a shebeen queen. Her parent Christina was a proprietress who was detained for illegally brewing alcohol when Makeba was 18 days old. Unable to pay the fine, she was incarcerated for six months, taking her baby with her, which is how Miriam’s remarkable journey started – just one of the details Seutin learned when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” says Seutin, when we meet in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she was raised there before moving to learn and labor in the UK, where she founded her company the ensemble. Her parent would perform Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when Seutin was a child, and dance to them in the home.

Songs of freedom … Miriam Makeba performs at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

A decade ago, her parent had cancer and was in hospital in the city. “I stopped working for three months to take care of her and she was constantly asking for the singer. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” Seutin recalls. “I had so much time to kill at the hospital so I began investigating.” As well as reading about Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in 1990, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a young lawyer in the era), Seutin discovered that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that Makeba’s daughter the girl passed away in childbirth in 1985, and that due to her banishment she could not be present at her parent’s funeral. “You see people and you focus on their success and you overlook that they are facing challenges like everyone,” says the choreographer.

Development and Themes

These reflections contributed to the creation of the show (premiered in the city in the year). Thankfully, her parent’s therapy was effective, but the idea for the piece was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. In this context, she highlights threads of her life story like memories, and nods more broadly to the idea of uprooting and loss today. Although it’s not explicit in the show, Seutin had in mind a second protagonist, a modern-day Miriam who is a traveler. “Together, we assemble as these other selves of personas connected to Miriam Makeba to greet this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … performers in the show.

In the show, rather than being inebriated by the shebeen’s local drink, the multi-talented performers appear taken over by rhythm, in synthesis with the musicians on the platform. Her choreography includes multiple styles of dance she has absorbed over the years, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including street styles like the form.

A celebration of resilience … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the singer. (Makeba passed away in 2008 after having a heart attack on stage in the country.) Why should new audiences discover the legend? “In my view she would motivate young people to stand for what they believe in, expressing honesty,” says the choreographer. “However she accomplished this very elegantly. She’d say something poignant and then perform a beautiful song.” Seutin wanted to adopt the same approach in this work. “We see movement and listen to beautiful songs, an aspect of entertainment, but mixed with powerful ideas and moments that hit. This is what I admire about her. Since if you are being overly loud, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she did it in a way that you would accept it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

• The performance is at London, 22-24 October