A Palestinian American Choreographer’s Intimate, Epic ‘Gathering’

A series of community events has fed into the performances, with Yaa Samar! artists teaching dabke. In workshops held in April at an after-school club at the Arab-American Family Support Center in Queens and at Fort Hamilton High School in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, teenagers joined hands to learn dabke, the social dance that King says is “used for everything: celebration, warning and resistance.”

Those same winding, malleable steps with their resilient spirit permeate “Gathering.”

“The tradition of our gathering and the heritage of music and dance — it’s a very rich culture,” Wakim said. “And I think it’s our role to preserve it, document it and share it.”

For King, the gravity of the moment adds contextual layers and urgency to the work’s themes. But it also deepens the symbolism she finds in the orange. She reflects on how, all too often, individual dreams become casualties, too.

“Most Palestinian artists around the globe will say they’re Palestinian before they say they’re artists, because it’s the identity that’s attacked,” she said, describing that tension. “It’s oftentimes ‘we believe,’ because of this collective energy when you’re displaced. You see the erasure and deep devastation, and it’s so hard to say, ‘I believe.’

“While ‘Gathering’ is definitely a celebration of the power of the collective and community, the individual is very important.”

Audience members, too, have a vital role: as participants or witnesses.

“People have the choice to switch their role,” King said of the audience, “because I believe there’s something about grabbing an orange and placing it on a body — the act of doing that. But the act of seeing it is also something engrossing and heart-wrenching.”