Mercedes Ellington, a recipient of the Martha Hill Dance Lifetime Achievement Award 2025, Mercedes is a Composer of Dances and Theatrical Situations. Her career has been affected in time-related increments by race-ism, sex-ism, name-ism, and age-ism. A graduate from The Juilliard School of Music her first union job was performing in the Australian company of West Side Story. She was the first and only June Taylor Dancer of color on the Jackie Gleason Show for seven seasons. New York City credits include: Broadway: Sophisticated Ladies, Play On, and No, No, Nanette; City Center Revivals of Pal Joey, Wonderful Town, and Guys and Dolls; and George Wein’s Jazz Festival, Black Broadway and Wild Women Don’t Get The Blues! An honorary citizen of Paris, she narrated Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert Music at L’Eglise de Madeleine. She also toured overseas with the Duke Ellington Orchestra on their 1971 Russian tour and overseas tours in Hong Kong, Tai Pei and six cities in Japan with her tap dance company: BalleTap USA. In 2013, she was awarded an Audelco Award for her choreography in the York Theater production of Storyville. The founder, CEO and Artistic Director of The Duke Ellington Center for the Arts, she currently presents concerts at venues around the city based on the music from the Ellington catalogue.

Mercedes stays young continuing her training in floor barre and Pilates, as well as being involved in the world of Ballroom Dance Competitions.

Ms. Ellington's presenter will be André De Shields