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“If you talk about the legendary singer in South Africa, it’s like speaking about a sovereign,” remarks the choreographer. Known as the Empress of African Song, the iconic artist also associated in New York with renowned musicians like Miles Davis and Duke Ellington. Starting as a young person sent to work to provide for her relatives in Johannesburg, she eventually became a diplomat for the nation, then Guinea’s official delegate to the UN. An outspoken campaigner against segregation, she was married to a Black Panther. Her remarkable life and legacy motivate the choreographer’s latest work, 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 stage work that isn’t a straightforward biodrama but draws on her past, particularly her experience of banishment: after relocating to New York in 1959, she was prohibited from South Africa for 30 years due to her opposition to segregation. Later, she was excluded from the United States after marrying activist Stokely Carmichael. The performance is like a ceremonial tribute, a reimagined memorial – some praise, some festivity, some challenge – with the fabulous South African singer the performer at the centre reviving Makeba’s songs to vibrant life.

Strength and elegance … the production.

In South Africa, a informal gathering spot is an under-the-radar gathering place for locally made drinks and animated discussions, often presided over by a host. Makeba’s mother the matriarch was a proprietress who was detained for producing drinks without permission when Miriam was 18 days old. Unable to pay the fine, Christina went to prison for six months, bringing her infant with her, which is how her eventful life began – just one of the details the choreographer learned when studying Makeba’s life. “So many stories!” exclaims she, when we meet in Brussels after a show. Seutin’s parent is from Belgium and she mainly grew up there before moving to learn and labor in the United Kingdom, where she founded her company Vocab Dance. Her South African mother would sing Makeba’s songs, such as Pata Pata and Malaika, when she was a child, and move along in the home.

Songs of freedom … the artist sings at Wembley Stadium in 1988.

A ten years back, her parent had cancer and was in medical care in the city. “I paused my career for a quarter to take care of her and she was always asking for the singer. It delighted her when we were performing as one,” she recalls. “There was ample time to pass at the hospital so I started researching.” In addition to learning of her victorious homecoming to South Africa in 1990, after the freedom of the leader (whom she had encountered when he was a legal professional in the 1950s), Seutin found that she had been a breast cancer survivor in her youth, that her child Bongi passed away in childbirth in the year, and that due to her banishment she could not attend her parent’s funeral. “You see people and you focus on their success and you forget that they are struggling like anyone else,” states the choreographer.

Creation and Concepts

All these thoughts went into the creation of the production (first staged in Brussels in the year). Thankfully, her parent’s therapy was successful, but the idea for the piece was to honor “loss, existence, and grief”. Within that, Seutin highlights threads of Makeba’s biography like flashbacks, and references more broadly to the idea of uprooting and loss today. While it’s not explicit in the show, she had in mind a additional character, a contemporary version who is a traveler. “And we gather as these other selves of personas connected to the icon to welcome this young migrant.”

Rhythms of exile … performers in the show.

In the performance, rather than being inebriated by the venue’s home-brew, the multi-talented dancers appear taken over by rhythm, in synthesis with the players on the platform. Seutin’s dance composition includes various forms of dance she has learned over the time, including from African nations, plus the global performers’ own vocabularies, including street styles like krump.

Honoring strength … the creator.

She was taken aback to find that some of the newer, international in the group were unaware about the artist. (Makeba died in 2008 after having a heart attack on stage in Italy.) Why should younger generations learn about the legend? “In my view she would motivate young people to advocate what they are, speaking the truth,” says Seutin. “However she accomplished this very gracefully. She expressed something poignant and then sing a beautiful song.” She aimed to take the same approach in this work. “Audiences observe movement and hear melodies, an element of enjoyment, but mixed with powerful ideas and moments that resonate. That’s what I respect about her. Since if you are shouting too much, people won’t listen. They back away. But she achieved it in a way that you would receive it, and hear it, but still be graced by her ability.”

• The performance is showing in London, the dates