Johnnie Cruise Mercer: The Good News Suite

Home — the place where you were held, and where you return to begin again. With The Good News Suite, Johnnie Cruise Mercer draws on his upbringing in the Black Baptist church to create a work rooted in memory, ritual, and shared experience. Inspired by Bible scriptures passed down through childhood, these choreographies are crafted to guide communities through grief, and toward the possibility of release.

No two performances are the same. The Good News Suite shifts in response to each space and the people who gather there, taking shape as both performance and communal experience. At 92NY, Mercer premieres The Unforced Rhythms of Grace, a captivating new ensemble work for Black movement and vocal artists, grounded in contemporary gospel music and built from deeply embodied testimony, rhythm, and collective energy. Each night will feature guest artists from across New York’s Black dance community.

Mercer also shares a new version of his ever-evolving solo work, Mercies of a Butterfly.

A former 92NY Harkness Artist in Residence and 2022 Mainstage Artist, Mercer returns home to the stage where so many of the great artists of American modern dance found a sense of belonging while they expanded what dance can hold, and who it is for. The experiences he creates are immersive and shared, erasing the borders between the performers and audiences; experiences Dance Enthusiast describes as “tenderly moving and immensely rewarding … leaving the theater feeling full, and above all, revived.”

This performance is part of the Harkness Mainstage Series’ Home season, exploring how dance maps the shifting terrain of home, identity, and belonging, and the borders – visible and invisible – that shape us.