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A series of community events has fed into the performances, with Yaa Samar! artists teaching dabke.<\/em> 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 \u201cused for everything: celebration, warning and resistance.\u201d<\/p>\n Those same winding, malleable steps with their resilient spirit permeate \u201cGathering.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe tradition of our gathering and the heritage of music and dance \u2014 it\u2019s a very rich culture,\u201d Wakim said. \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s our role to preserve it, document it and share it.\u201d<\/p>\n For King, the gravity of the moment adds contextual layers and urgency to the work\u2019s themes. But it also deepens the symbolism she finds in the orange. She reflects on how, all too often, individual dreams become casualties, too.<\/p>\n \u201cMost Palestinian artists around the globe will say they\u2019re Palestinian before they say they\u2019re artists, because it\u2019s the identity that\u2019s attacked,\u201d she said, describing that tension. \u201cIt\u2019s oftentimes \u2018we believe,\u2019 because of this collective energy when you\u2019re displaced. You see the erasure and deep devastation, and it\u2019s so hard to say, \u2018I believe.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cWhile \u2018Gathering\u2019 is definitely a celebration of the power of the collective and community, the individual is very important.\u201d<\/p>\n Audience members, too, have a vital role: as participants or witnesses.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople have the choice to switch their role,\u201d King said of the audience, \u201cbecause I believe there\u2019s something about grabbing an orange and placing it on a body \u2014 the act of doing that. But the act of seeing it is also something engrossing and heart-wrenching.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n