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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

Fiesta Flamenca

Fiesta Flamenca is inspired by the origins of flamenco in café cantantes, placing the musicians and dancers among the audience. This star-studded program features a dazzling lineup of renowned artists, such as dancers Raquel Heredia “La Repompa,” Juan Tomás de la Molía, and Alberto Sellés, and singer-songwriter Mara Rey. Grab your seat in an intimate cabaret setting for a memorable celebration of flamenco’s depth, diversity, and fiery passion.

Christina Masciotti: Liberty Scrap

In Liberty Scrap, cash is tight, and the goings are tough, but Katya has managed to eke out a living in a scrap metal warehouse by day, and as an artist by night, fashioning sculptures out of debris. When her Uzbek father falls ill, she attempts to return home to care for him, only to discover her dubious immigration status is much more dangerous than she ever imagined, threatening to keep her separated from her family forever.

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker: EXIT ABOVE

Legendary choreographer Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker returns to NYU Skirball with EXIT ABOVE, a bold exploration of movement, rhythm, and musicality. Set to a driving score inspired by the roots of Western pop music, the blues, this hypnotic work transforms walking into a mesmerizing act of dance. De Keersmaeker’s signature precision meets raw, unfiltered energy as dancers move in a relentless, rhythmic flow.

Sara Baras

Olivier Award winner Sara Baras returns to City Center with Vuela (“fly”), a cinematic journey in four acts that pays tribute to the great flamenco guitarist Paco de Lucía.