A Palestinian American Choreographerās Intimate, Epic āGatheringā
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 āused for everything: celebration, warning and resistance.ā
Those same winding, malleable steps with their resilient spirit permeate āGathering.ā
āThe tradition of our gathering and the heritage of music and dance ā itās a very rich culture,ā Wakim said. āAnd I think itās our role to preserve it, document it and share it.ā
For King, the gravity of the moment adds contextual layers and urgency to the workās themes. But it also deepens the symbolism she finds in the orange. She reflects on how, all too often, individual dreams become casualties, too.
āMost Palestinian artists around the globe will say theyāre Palestinian before they say theyāre artists, because itās the identity thatās attacked,ā she said, describing that tension. āItās oftentimes āwe believe,ā because of this collective energy when youāre displaced. You see the erasure and deep devastation, and itās so hard to say, āI believe.ā
āWhile āGatheringā is definitely a celebration of the power of the collective and community, the individual is very important.ā
Audience members, too, have a vital role: as participants or witnesses.
āPeople have the choice to switch their role,ā King said of the audience, ābecause I believe thereās something about grabbing an orange and placing it on a body ā the act of doing that. But the act of seeing it is also something engrossing and heart-wrenching.ā
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