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mrpj.org is the online edition of Movement Research Performance Journal. Discover our latest issue, explore our archive and follow a calendar of select events dedicated to contemporary performance.

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Cover of Issue #62

Issue #62

Winter 2026

We Exist in the Ambivalence of Those Motherfuckers

What began as a project responding to the fiftieth anniversary of the ‘end’ of the Vietnam War became a project of inhabiting the Movement Research Performance Journal (MRPJ) from within the landscape of contemporary Vietnamese performance art. The result, Issue #62, is a window onto a community of insiders who reflect a set of concerns, questions, historical trajectories, and aesthetic legacies that differ from what has more often been foregrounded in our U.S./New York City-centric publication. Like other documents of this kind, which endeavor to portray a performance scene that will be foreign to many readers, the texts from this group of intergenerational, contemporary artists demonstrate a careful navigation of the dialectics of inside and outside, self and other, performer and audience, seeing and being seen, that informs every exchange across cultural difference. The texts are also not monolithic, suggesting a range of relations to the Vietnam of the past and present, from within Vietnam’s national borders and among the diaspora. Especially for contributors living and working in Vietnam, writing has also been a practice of choreographing words within a political landscape where to speak publicly, in itself, is a performance of negotiated risk. Embracing the complexities of these differing positions has been the focus of our editorial process—one that has asked the editorial team to embrace the limits of our own knowledge, to recognize we will not be able to recognize all valences others may discover in these texts, and not to edit these layers out of the works that follow.

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Calendar

Joan Jonas: The Juniper Tree

In collaboration with Danspace on three evenings in March 2026, world-renowned artist Joan Jonas will present a new iteration of The Juniper Tree, her 1976 performance inspired by a folktale of the same name. The Juniper Tree has a centuries-long history of being told and retold. Jonas turns to this story as a performance vehicle to explore the various roles women play and how they are represented.

Milo Rau & Édouard Louis: The Interrogation

The Interrogation is a raw, intimate collaboration between director Milo Rau and writer Édouard Louis, blending personal testimony with urgent political critique. The work unfolds as a stark monologue that revisits moments of violence, class shame, and queer identity in contemporary France. Rau’s minimalist staging amplifies Louis’ searing honesty, creating a space where personal memory becomes collective reckoning.

Milo Rau & Servane Dècle: The Pelicot Trial

“Shame must change sides.” With these words, and her courageous decision to make her trial public, Gisèle Pelicot ignited an international reckoning in the fight to end violence against women. What began as the Mazan rape case, in a small town in southern France, revealed how ordinary men across ages and social backgrounds could commit an unthinkable crime, the repeated assault of an unconscious woman. This urgent evening of readings revisits examinations, pleas, and commentaries from the trial.

Ivy Baldwin Dance + Jeanine Durning

NYU Skirball unveils a world premiere double bill featuring bold new works from two of contemporary dance’s most fearless voices: Ivy Baldwin and Jeanine Durning. Each choreographer takes the stage with a distinct vision, Baldwin with her rigorously inventive physical landscapes, and Durning with her radical experiments in movement and language, together offering a night of unforgettable contrasts and cutting-edge performance.