Abstract: A subject is placed on a patient support (16) with a bodily structure, such as a joint, within an imaging region (12) of a magnetic resonance imager (10). The bodily structure is moved continuously back and forth through a series of motion states, either manually or under power (70, 72). Encoded magnetic resonance data is distributed (42) into motion state windows. Data with phase encodings near the center of k-space are distributed accurately into the corresponding motion state window; whereas, data phase encoded near the edge of k-space is distributed with less accuracy and may be duplicated and shared among several motion state windows. Data from each motion state window are reconstructed (50) and displayed (56) in a cine mode representing continuous motion.