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

For the Palestinian American choreographer Samar Haddad King, the orange is more than a prop in her latest show. It’s an entry point into her culture.

“It’s one of the few fruits that you can divide into individual components without using a knife,” King said, noting that oranges are symbols of livelihood and sustenance to many Palestinians. Each slice “is perfectly formed with its own casing and borders, and yet, it’s just a piece of the whole.”

In “Gathering: New York City,” hundreds of oranges spill across the floor. The performers toss the oranges in athletic dance phrases and stack them ceremoniously on each other’s prone bodies. Audience members are drawn into the play, rolling errant oranges toward the middle of the room.

“Gathering,” which has its world premiere on Thursday at the Shed as part of its Open Call series, tells the fictional story of an unnamed village under siege and one woman’s struggle to reconcile her fragmented memories. Though the work had been in development since before the pandemic, the Israel-Hamas war, which has gone on for several months, is now part of its subtext, lending increased resonance to its themes of trauma and dislocation — and bringing people together.

“Palestinians know how to gather — in celebration, in mourning, in harvest,” King said. “This piece started as a homage to that.”