Johnnie Cruise Mercer brings The Good News Suite to 92NY on Friday, October 16, and Saturday, October 17, at 7 p.m. The program includes the world premiere of a new ensemble piece, The Unforced Rhythms of Grace. Tickets start at $45.
Both performances are in Buttenwieser Hall at the Arnhold Center, as part of Home: Departure and Return, the Harkness Dance Center’s 2026/27 Mainstage season. The season is built around how dance maps home, identity and belonging, and the borders, seen and unseen, that shape them.
Mercer made the suite out of his upbringing in the Black Baptist church, working from scripture he learned as a child. The choreography is meant to help a community move through grief toward release. It also changes with each space and each audience, so no two performances are alike.
The Unforced Rhythms of Grace is written for Black dancers and singers and grounded in contemporary gospel. Each night adds guest artists from New York’s Black dance community, along with singers, actors and musicians. The program also includes a new version of Mercies of a Butterfly, a solo Mercer keeps reworking.
Mercer dances with TheREDprojectNYC Movement Ensemble: Paulina Meneses, TJ Jacobs, Paris Jones and Demietrius Burns. Jean Charlot plays drums and Robert McSweeney horn. The vocal ensemble is Alejandro Jimenez, who also arranged the vocals, with Jaida Forman and Nic Pierre. Whimzee is technical director and lighting designer, Justin Johnson designs sound, and wardrobe is by Pierre Rashad and Ifeyinwa Ogbuagu.
The same season brings Christopher Williams’s Spectre de la Rose to 92NY on October 29 and 30.
92NY is at 1395 Lexington Avenue. Tickets are on sale from 92NY.
