In its long gestation, Samar Haddad King’s Gathering predates the war on Gaza. But as a Palestinian-American who lives in East Jerusalem when not traveling with her small international troupe, Yaa Samar! Dance Theatre, Haddad King was already thinking about dispossession and loss, as well as whatever seeds of hope they permit. The central prop in the acclaimed 2024 work is the orange, once a sign of Palestinian flourishing (the famous Jaffa orange), and then—when Israel claimed the city and its surrounding orange groves—of resistance. Onstage there are 100 oranges mounded in the center, scattered to the margins, rolling beneath audience seats, tossed from hand to hand. The dancers in this surreal drama, currently touring southwest France, are guests at a wedding. One of them is overtaken by fragmentary memories of other gatherings. “Palestinians know how to gather—in celebration, in mourning, in harvest,” Haddad King has said. With its indelible stage images, seemingly spontaneous interactions, and episodic nature, Gathering takes after Pina Bausch. But its use of language leans more toward theater and its seriousness of purpose lends it urgency and terrible poignance. —Apollinaire Scherr