‘Welcome Home’ invites you to find comfort in dance and community

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When David Orr recognized how especially turbulent the past few years had felt, he set out to create a respite.

“We’ve been under a lot of stress,” says Orr, president of Boston Moving Arts, a dance nonprofit, pointing to the pandemic, social unrest and economic instability. “What we need is kind of a safe place where we can be … reminded of our humanity and that we’re all together and we’re all okay.”

That’s the goal of “Welcome Home,” a forthcoming dance production from Boston Moving Arts centered on providing a sense of relief. With performances on Oct. 18 and 19 at the Dance Theater at Boston University, “Welcome Home” aims to respond to challenging life circumstances by serving as an “elixir,” Orr says, and evoke feelings of community and togetherness.

“When you go dancing and when you move your body and you’re moving with other people … It feels great,” Orr says. “And then, if you’re doing something that is specifically, kind of culturally designed to be unifying, it really … makes you feel wonderful.”

The production will begin with a reading of “Joy Chose You,” a poem by Donna Ashworth, to inspire a moment of introspection before moving on to the main attraction: four works by four dance companies selected by Orr for their focus on themes of connection.

German American dance company FLOCK performs “Somewhere Between.” PHOTO: MICHELLE REID

Massachusetts-born choreographer Rachel Linsky’s “Gathering Sparks” will bring to life Yiddish folk customs to the soundtrack of music from Ezekiel’s Wheels Klezmer Band, while German American dance company FLOCK will usher in its Boston debut with “Somewhere Between,” an exploration of childhood myths and memories. Inspired by the theme of finding comfort, choreographers Leah Misano and Andrew Skeels created new pieces for “Welcome Home.” In Misano’s “Ramblin,’” contemporary and folk dance meet country-and-western traditions for a piece centering on freedom, and Skeels’ “Unkempt” spotlights the complexity of human interaction.

“There’s a lot of joy that comes in the movement that we’re doing,” says Imani Deal, a dancer who will perform in Linsky’s piece. Rehearsing “Gathering Sparks,” she said, has brought her the comfort that she hopes to, in turn, provide the audience.

“Welcome Home” will conclude with a surprise interactive element that encourages the audience to be not just a spectator of dance, but a maker of it. This cultural exchange, Deal says, is what makes dance productions like “Welcome Home” essential.

“With the state of the world, it’s crucial that we find community and share stories,” Deal says. She added that her “big motivator for movement is that it’s a universal language, and being able to tell stories, often untold stories, through movement is a way to get information to people that they may not be able to understand via just talking.”