“I work in between dance theater, installation, and really I’m just kind of a storyteller,” the choreographer Stefanie Batten Bland said in a recent interview, “someone that loves to dive into connecting us and understanding why we choose to be connected as people on this planet and why we make other choices, like why we don’t.” Batten Bland’s latest story is called Embarqued: Stories of Soil. It was inspired by the African American Heritage Trail on Martha’s Vineyard, which has 30 sites that honor people of African heritage for their contributions to the island. A ship’s mast and rigging is the defining onstage prop and mythic symbol, the place where destinies cross. —Laura Jacobs