What?

Premiered at the International Peace Research Association (IPRA) 2025 Conference, the performance received a standing ovation and sparked an emotional, deeply personal discussion among peace researchers, activists, and community leaders from around the world. Many audience members shared stories of displacement, survival, and conflict that the piece viscerally brought to the surface, affirming its ability to catalyze dialogue and reflection across cultures.

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A Tale of Two Tables: Un/Covered is a 45-minute immersive contemporary dance work that contrasts the tenderness of daily life with the calculated logic of war. Set between a warm brown kitchen table and a cold green baize table, the piece journeys from family rhythms to battlefield tensions to the strategic negotiations of global leaders. Through powerful physicality, intricate partnering, and moments of guided audience participation, the work reveals how the same human hands can protect peace or dismantle it.

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When?

November 7, 2025
5:30 pm – 6:15 pm Performance
Followed by a Talkback + Peace Dialogue Session

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Where?

International Peace Research Association Biennial Conference
New Plymouth, New Zealand
Hosted at the conference’s main performance hall and workshop space.

The presentation took place as part of IPRA’s “Arts, Peacebuilding, and Transformative Practice” track, creating an intimate, responsive environment where the line between performers and participants intentionally blurred.

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Why?

Conflict, tension, and power exist at all of our tables, both personal and political.

A Tale of Two Tables: Un/Covered probes the spaces where family tenderness meets global turbulence:

• the warm table where we eat, argue, love, and unravel

• and the green baize table where decisions are made that shape nations, borders, and lives far beyond the room.

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The work illuminates the emotional and physical burdens of war, while also symbolizing internal battles, generational wounds, and the domestic power dynamics present in every culture. By bringing these themes into a shared, embodied space, the piece asks:

Who are we at each table?
What fractures do we carry?
What does it truly mean to choose peace—within ourselves, our families, and our communities?

And What can empathy and release look like in today's world?

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Through contemporary movement, theatrical gesture, stillness, and guided participation, the piece invites audiences to witness, reflect, and feel their way through complex emotions, bridging research with lived experience. The talkback afterward provided a vital communal space for processing, one that many attendees described as healing, necessary, and unforgettable.

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Who?

The following dancers presented at our premier at IPRA: 
Jestoni Dagdag
Simon Harrison
Kristy Hwang
Katie Marshall
Katie Walsh
Boróka Nagy (Director & Choreographer)

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The presentation also marked the official launch of Reborn Arts’ Dance for Peace initiative, a long-term effort to use dance as a catalyst for empathy, healing, and peace education across the United States and abroad.

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