Mercedes Ellington, Director/Choreographer, Producer, Performer, and Family Historian. This career has been affected in time-related increments by race-ism, sex-ism, name-ism, and age-ism. Meanwhile…………..
After graduating from The Juilliard School of Music with a B.S. Degree in Dance, her first Union job was performing in the Australian company of West Side Story for seven months: three months in Sydney and four months in Melbourne. Other work in New York City, included at least ten Broadway and Broadway related productions: Sophisticated Ladies, Play On, No No Nanette, The Night That Made America Famous well as three revivals at City Center, three of George Wein’s Jazz Festivals, New York City Opera’s L’Histoire Du Soldat, regional Industrial Shows and ten productions at the MUNY in St. Louis.
An honorary citizen of Paris, she recently narrated Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concert Music at L’Eglise de Madeleine. Other overseas assignments include accompanying the Duke Ellington Orchestra on part of their 1971 Russian tour, three tours of The United Arab Emirates; two with Andre De Shields in Ambassador Satch and one with The Duke Ellington Center Big Band. Earlier overseas tours included Hong Kong, Tai Pei and six cities in Japan with her tap dance company: BalleTap USA assisted by Maurice Hines and Bernard Johnson.
She was awarded an Audelco award for her choreography in the York Theater production of Storyville.
Early groundbreaking credit as the first and only June Taylor Dancer of color on the Jackie Gleason Show for seven seasons, her first encounter with Ms. Taylor was as a dancer in three productions at The Jones Beach Marine Theater.
Recently involved in the world of Ballroom Dance Competitions, she and her teacher/partner, Michael Choi, won first and second places in Cuba last year.
The founder, CEO and Artistic Director of The Duke Ellington Center For the Arts, a not for profit 501(C)(3) since 2007, she currently presents concerts with Tony Waag and his American Tap Dance Foundation, at Birdland and other venues based on the musical output from the Ellington catalog of almost 3,000 compositions.