Mercer and team travel to the Hamptons to further build the one act dance theater piece, Mercies of a Butterfly! At the height of the development, this Sag Harbor preview will focus on etching out the skeleton of this highly emotional work! The preview will be preceded 15 minute before the show by a pre-show ritual asking community members to a burn/let go of a moment of grief.
This evening will be included in Sag Harbor Church’s first churchiennial featuring an array of artits from the church’s commissioning & residency history!
About the Developing Work
"Mercies of a Butterfly" is a one act dance theater work, performed and created by Johnnie Cruise Mercer. A movement allegory about resilience, the work follows a recently born spirit as it contends with the weight of change. With Mercer’s meta-physical history at its root, the work spills out as a testimony on both flying through and weathering the storm!
Mercies of a Butterfly involves close collaborations alongside a creative team of long-time collaborators and peers including music producer Young Denzel, film/video artist Torian Ugworji, Horn Player Robert McSweeney, Drummer Jean Charlot, and fashion designer Pierre Wright. The solo can be performed in untraditional performance spaces, and tours with its own untraditional lighting equipment.
Mercies of a Butterfly will premiere as a part of Go East Collective’s OUT FRONT Festival 2026.