Movement Museum

Marla Phelan is the founder and artistic director of Movement Museum, a creative platform dedicated to multidisciplinary works, rooted in dance, that expand the way audiences experience movement. Committed to empowering artists, its mission is to elevate dance through collaboration while offering affordable, high-caliber performances and outreach programs that make dance accessible to all.

As a choreographer, director, and performer, Phelan crafts work that draw audiences into visceral encounters with identity, transformation, and the complexities of being human. Her practice merges physical rigor with emotional depth, weaving dance into narratives across stage, film, installation, and collaborations with science and technology. 

Phelan is thrilled to announce the world premiere of Birth + Carnage, an evening-length dance work at the intersection of choreography, astrophysics, and technology, presented by La MaMa, with performances at The Ellen Stewart Theater in NYC, December 19–21, 2025. 

Born from Phelan's collaboration with astrophysicist Dr. Blakesley Burkhart, Birth + Carnage draws from computational simulations of stellar birth as both visceral metaphor and choreographic framework. In collaboration with director Tim Richardson, astrophysical data is rendered into large-scale digital projections—shifting visual fields that echo cycles of transformation. Dancers are immersed within these simulations, creating a feedback loop of allegory and sensation. The score by James Newberry deepens the emotional terrain through layered electronic textures. Birth + Carnage explores how cosmic and human systems reflect one another—tracing a bridge between the vastness of the universe and the depths of human connection.

To bring this monumental production to life, Movement Museum needs your support!