Revival 2025: From the Oaks or Righteousness; Seeds Towards The Good News

A Performance Workshop featuring professional and youth artists working together in process

Sat Oct 25th 8pm

Sun Oct 26th 2pm (includes a pre-show ritual starting at 1:45pm)

@Dancewave

182 4th Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217

This has been a year of change; it has been landmarked by quick storms of upheaval, and has taken me into the pits of “the why” of “the work”. Through the hustle and bustle of 2025 I have found a place of solace, I have become smitten with finding ways to continue. I have re-rooted myself to the histories that tell of perseverance. I am dedicated to making in service.

This year’s Revival is an ode to the firm foundations that hold me tight. It is a gathering inspired by the power of standing tall, without doubt, through mourning, and in spite of despair. From these works my hope is to sow seeds of goodness, to spread the news that we, I, you, are capable of resilience, strength, and uninhabited, boundless joy!

I hope these moments, this sharing, blesses you with the free falling feeling of faith, and that we are all able to find our roots so that we can grow together.

This evening includes multiple works choreographed by Johnnie Cruise Mercer including two works in process (Mercies of a Butterfly, and An Ode to Rescue) and new works performed by young artists from Dancewave Company II (Brooklyn, NY), Henrico High School’s Center for the Arts Dance Ensemble (Henrico, VA), and alum from the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School (Petersburg, VA).

The performance workshop will also include a video tribute dedicated to Erica Saucedo, a TRPNYC team member who though is no longer with us has grounded much of the work of the company. It is an honor to continue the work in her name!

Main image photographed by Tony Turner

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About the Featured Youth Companies

Dancewace II Company

Performing The Distance of Release

A spacious dance training program that builds ability, artistic integrity, and leadership skills, the Dancewave Company Program celebrates young artists for who they are and supports them in becoming who they want to be.

Incorporating technique classes, rehearsals with renowned choreographers, performance and choreographic opportunities, and intentional community-building through movement, our proven effective training provides dancers with leadership development, individual mentoring, and restorative whole-person education.

Through their time in the program, company members grow into confident dancers and empowered individuals ready to make their voices heard: in the studio, on the stage, and beyond.

Henrico High School’s Center for the Arts Dance Ensemble

Performing TheNumniousTree.

The Henrico Center for the Arts was established in 1990 as Henrico County’s first high school specialty center. The program serves as Henrico County’s leading performing and visual arts center by providing intensive, in-depth arts training in dance, musical theatre, theatre and visual arts. CFA students can obtain and maintain the highest level of artistic and academic achievement in their specialized arts curriculum, enhanced by state-of-the-art facilities, resident and guest faculties, numerous performance and internship opportunities and arts-infused core academic courses. The center employs a rigorous program of study that meets and exceeds VDOE standards for a Virginia high school diploma and prepares students to pursue the arts in higher education and arts-related careers.

The Appomattox Regional Governor’s School of the Arts and Technology

Featuring Alum Angelita Lind, and Kimini Mason

performing let loose & let love

Through integration of a well-founded liberal arts education with intensive focus upon specific artistic or technological discipline, The Appomattox Regional Governor’s School for the Arts and Technology provides gifted and talented students a differentiated and rigorous education, cultivates a supportive environment that inspires unique artistic and technological visions, promotes cultural tolerance, nurtures community partnerships, and produces active, engaged citizens.

About the Work in Process

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. The solo includes performances by Robert McSweeney (Horn player), and Jean Charlot (Drummer), and includes Visual Design/Creative Direction by long time collaborator Torian Ugworji. In this bare-bone rendition of the work, Mercer workshops the material in preparation for its full premiere as a part of Go East Collective’s OUT FRONT Festival 2026.

An Ode to Rescue!, is a short ensemble work carrying messages of safety, recuperation, and hope. A lyrical dance consisting of a simple, yet meticulous, movement score, the short work will have its full premiere in May 2026.

Both works are a part of The Good News, a set of choreographies honoring maker Johnnie Cruise Mercer’s upbringing in the Black Baptist church. Inspired by Bible scriptures orally passed down to Mercer from his childhood, the works are each intentionally crafted to guide communities through the grief of today while leading them towards the sensations/tools/the state of letting go.

About the Partnering Institutions

This year’s Revival would not have been possible without the structural, and financial support from the following institutions.

Pioneer’s Go East (Educational Partner)

Movement Research (Artistic & Space Partner)

Dancewave (Event Location Partner)

About TRPNYC’s Revival

TheREDprojectNYC’s Revival is an annual event curated around communal breath, ephebism, and generational revitalization. With a yearly shifting theme, and concept, the series focuses on bringing together professional and in process artists in a community oriented day of performances, happenings, and workshops. Each Revival roots itself in the present, offering ways to connect and reflect on what has happened, what will happen, and where we are currently.

About TheREDprojectNYC (TRPNYC)

TheREDprojectNYC (TRPNYC) is a network of artists dedicated to holding creative space for those who are othered, oppressed, and unheard. We as a company are invested in artistic work that encourages the development of new processes, and that uplifts the practice of documenting investigation. With a mission to cultivate freedom of thought, the company invests into collaborations that are community responsive and culturally reflective. We curate events, organize workshops, host labs, and produce concerts that center the progression of post-contemporary ideas. We believe in the power of change and that tradition is a map from the past that holds the key to our present-future.

Originally founded in Richmond in 2015 by Johnnie Cruise Mercer, Torian Ugworji, and Shanice Mason, the company is celebrating ten years of service to its community. After relocating to New York City in 2016, the company has been in partnership with The Stephen Petronio Residency Center, Appomattox Regional Governors School, The CUNY Dance Initiative, The 92NY Harkness Dance Center, BAAD!, Ping Chong and Company, RestorationArts, First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn, Movement Research's Dance Makers Program, The American Dance Festival, Center for Performance Research and Brooklyn Arts Exchange's Practice Labs.

At its root, TRPNYC is a company comprised of five branches of service; The Movement Ensemble (a rotating team of movement, theater, and performance artists), The TRPNYC Band (a tribe of sound makers, instrumentalists, and music producers), Community w/TRPNYC (a curated set of happenings/events centered around communional healing, resting, and joy), TRPNYC’s Visual Makers (a collaborative group of media, film, and visual artists), and the TRPNYC Think-Making Lab (a series of process forward labs dedicated to learning, and collaboration in partnership with other like minded institutions/organizations).

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