🔗 Share this article

“If you talk about the legendary singer in the nation, it’s similar to talking about a royal figure,” states the choreographer. Called the Empress of African Song, Makeba additionally associated in Greenwich Village with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a teenager 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 UN. An vocal anti-apartheid activist, she was the wife to a activist. This remarkable story and impact motivate the choreographer’s latest work, the performance, set for its British debut.

A Blend of Dance, Music, and Spoken Word

The show merges dance, live music, and spoken word in a theatrical piece that is not a straightforward biodrama but draws on Makeba’s history, especially her experience of banishment: after relocating to New York in 1959, she was barred from South Africa for 30 years due to her anti-apartheid stance. Later, she was banned from the United States after marrying Black Panther activist Stokely Carmichael. The show resembles a ritual of remembrance, a deconstructed funeral – some praise, part celebration, part provocation – with a exceptional vocalist the performer at the centre bringing her music to dynamic existence.

Power and poise … the production.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar venue for home-brewed liquor and lively conversation, usually presided over by a host. Makeba’s mother Christina was a proprietress who was arrested for illegally brewing alcohol when Miriam was a newborn. Incapable of covering the penalty, Christina was incarcerated for half a year, bringing her baby with her, which is how her eventful life began – just one of the details Seutin learned when studying her story. “Numerous tales!” exclaims she, when they met in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s father is from Belgium and she was raised there before relocating to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she established her company the ensemble. Her parent would perform Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a youngster, and move along in the home.

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

A ten years back, her parent had cancer and was in hospital in the city. “I paused my career for three months to take care of her and she was constantly asking for Miriam Makeba. It delighted her when we were singing together,” she recalls. “I had so much time to kill at the hospital so I started researching.” In addition to learning of Makeba’s triumphant return to South Africa in the year, after the release of Nelson Mandela (whom she had met when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), she found that Makeba had been a breast cancer survivor in her teens, that her child Bongi passed away in labor in 1985, and that due to her exile she could not attend her parent’s funeral. “Observing individuals and you focus on their success and you forget that they are struggling like everyone,” says the choreographer.

Creation and Concepts

These reflections contributed to the creation of the production (premiered in Brussels in the year). Fortunately, Seutin’s mother’s treatment was successful, but the concept for the work was to celebrate “death, life and mourning”. In this context, Seutin highlights threads of Makeba’s biography like memories, and nods more generally to the idea 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 migrant. “Together, we assemble as these alter egos of characters connected to the icon to welcome this newcomer.”

Melodies of banishment … musicians in the show.

In the show, rather than being intoxicated by the venue’s home-brew, the skilled dancers appear possessed by rhythm, in harmony with the musicians on the platform. Her dance composition includes various forms of movement she has absorbed over the time, including from Rwanda, South Africa and Senegal, plus the global performers’ personal styles, including urban dances like krump.

Honoring strength … Alesandra Seutin.

Seutin was surprised to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the artist. (Makeba died in the year after having a heart attack on stage in the country.) Why should new audiences learn about the legend? “In my view she would motivate young people to advocate what they believe in, expressing honesty,” says the choreographer. “However she accomplished this very gracefully. She expressed something meaningful and then perform a beautiful song.” She wanted to take the similar method in this production. “We see dancing and listen to beautiful songs, an aspect of enjoyment, but mixed with strong messages and instances that hit. That’s what I admire about Miriam. Because if you are shouting too much, people may ignore. They back away. Yet she achieved it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be blessed by her ability.”

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