The 2025 Martha Hill Awards Gala
!!!OUR SILVER ANNIVERSARY!!!
On Monday, February 24, 2025, 6pm
at
The Manhattan Penthouse
80 Fifth Avenue
New York City
we will honor Janet Eilber, Mercedes Ellington
and Lar Lubovitch with
The Lifetime Achievement Award
and
Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell with
The Mid-Career Award
If you are not already on our mailing list, please join HERE
You have the option of being one of our High Tier Donors
Your name will be included in our Gala Program
The tiers are as follows:
Platinum Table for ten guests @ $5000
Golden Table for ten guests @ $3000
Benefactor @ $2000 per person
Patron @ $800 per person
Sponsor @ $400 per person
Or you can purchase a general ticket:
Donor @ $225 per person
Please also consider sponsoring a student's attendance:
Students @ $125 each
If you are unable to attend but would still like to support the gala,
any amount is appreciated. Just click the button
on the top right of this page and you can donate $50 or more.
For all tickets and donations, go HERE
or DOWNLOAD THIS FORM, fill it out and mail it with your check
payable to The Martha Hill Dance Fund
to
MHDF Donations
c/o Corvino
14 Little Fox Lane
Norwalk CT 06850
More detailed information will be sent to you via email as we get closer to the event!
Our Gala features an Open Bar and a Three Course Meal
If you would like to purchase an ad to be placed in the Gala Program, go HERE
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The 2025 Awardees
Lifetime Achievement
Janet Eilber has been Artistic Director of the Martha Graham Dance Company since 2005. Her direction has focused on creating new forms of audience access to the Graham masterworks and has burnished the reputation of the Company as one of the country’s great cultural assets. Earlier in her career, Ms. Eilber danced many of Graham’s greatest roles, had roles created for her by Graham, and was directed by Graham in most of the major roles of the repertory. She soloed at the White House, was partnered by Rudolf Nureyev, starred in three segments of Dance in America, and has taught, lectured, and directed Graham ballets internationally. Ms. Eilber has also performed in films, on television, and on Broadway directed by such greats as Agnes de Mille, Tommy Tune, Marge Champion and Bob Fosse and has received four Lester Horton Awards for her reconstruction of seminal American choreography. She guided The Dana Foundation’s funding for teaching artists and contributed regularly to its publications for almost a decade. Ms. Eilber is a Trustee Emeritus of the Interlochen Center for the Arts, and was recently honored with a Doctorate of Fine Arts from the Juilliard School. She is married to screenwriter/director John Warren, with whom she has two daughters, Madeline and Eva.
Ms. Eilber's presenter will be Peggy Lyman Hayes
Lifetime Achievement
Mercedes Ellington 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
Lifetime Achievement
Lar Lubovitch was born in 1943. He founded the Lar Lubovitch Dance Company in 1968, touring
worldwide for over 50 years. Numerous dances performed by major US and international companies include Othello - A Dance in Three Acts, created with ABT and SF Ballet which was featured on PBS’s “Great Performances” (Emmy nom.). Film and television dances: Fandango (International Emmy), My Funny Valentine for Robert Altman film The Company (American Choreography Award nom.). Concerto Six Twenty-two and North Star for BBC. Ice-dances for many Olympic skaters, as well as TV specials: The Sleeping Beauty On Ice (PBS), The Planets On Ice (A&E) (Int’l. Emmy nom.,Cable Ace Award, Grammy Award). Broadway: Into the Woods (Tony nom.), The Red Shoes (Astaire Award) and Tony Award-winning revival of The King and I. 1987: conceived Dancing for Life, dance community’s first response to the AIDS crisis. 2007: founded Chicago Dancing Festival (10 years of free performances by leading American dance companies). 2016: premiered evening-length ballet, The Bronze Horseman, at the Mikhailovsky Ballet (St. Petersburg, Russia). Recent awards: Chicagoan of the Year (Chicago Tribune) & (Chicago Magazine); Ford Fellow (US Artists); Dance/USA Honors; Prix Benois de la Danse for Choreography (Bolshoi, Moscow); America’s Irreplaceable Dance Treasure (Dance Heritage Coalition); Lifetime Achievement awards from American Dance Guild; ADF/Scripps; Dance Magazine; and Martha Graham Foundation. Honorary Doctorates: Juilliard & Boston Conservatory. Since 2018: Distinguished Professor of Dance at UCIrvine.
Mr. Lubovitch's presenter will be Matthew Rushing
Mid-Career
Linda-Denise Fisher-Harrell is the Artistic Director of Hubbard Street Dance Chicago. She is the first alumni of the company, first woman, and first person of color to lead the organization. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Linda-Denise began her dance training at the Baltimore School for the Arts under the guidance of Sylvester Campbell and Stephanie Powell. She was an apprentice with the Capitol Ballet in Washington D.C. under the direction of Doris Jones and a full fellowship student at The Ailey School before attending The Juilliard School. She was invited by Hubbard Street founder Lou Conte to join the main company thus beginning her professional dance career. After three seasons with Hubbard Street, Linda-Denise became a Principal Dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, under the direction of the legendary Judith Jamison. During her 13-year tenure with the company, Linda-Denise performed all over the world and was featured in the works of Alvin Ailey, Robert Battle, Talley Beatty, Ron K. Brown, among others. Linda-Denise was invited to give several special performances throughout her career, including the White House State Dinner in honor of the President of Kenya, Mwai Kibaki, and the 12th Annual Kennedy Center Gala with Nancy Wilson and Liza Minelli. Linda-Denise has also led a distinguished career as a dance educator. She has been a Professor of Dance at Towson University since 2005 and has served on the faculty of her alma mater, the Baltimore School for the Arts. She holds a Master of Fine Arts Degree in Dance from Hollins University.
Ms. Fisher-Harrell's presenter will be Vincent Thomas
Guest Host
Princess Grace Award Winning Artist, Director, and Entrepreneur Nigel Campbell was born and raised in The Bronx, New York. He began his early training at Creative Outlet Dance Theater and received his B.F.A. from The Juilliard School. While a student at Juilliard, Campbell joined the Metropolitan Opera Ballet as a soloist. After graduating, he danced full-time for the Saarlandisches Staatstheater under the direction of Marguerite Donlon, Luna Negra Dance Theater under the direction of Gustavo Ramirez Sansano, the GöteborgsOperans Danskompani under the direction of Adolphe Binder and performed as a guest artist with Kyle Abraham’s A.I.M. Campbell joined Gibney in 2015 as an Artistic Associate performing with Gibney Company (then Gibney Dance Company). He became Co-Director of Gibney Company in 2017, working alongside Gina Gibney and Amy Miller during a period of significant growth and transformation. In 2015, Campbell co-founded MOVE|NYC| with Chanel DaSilva, with the mission of cultivating greater diversity and equity in the dance field and beyond. He has also served on the faculty of The Juilliard School, teaching “Essentials of Entrepreneurship in the Arts,” and on faculty at SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, teaching contemporary. A sought after master teacher, répétiteur, and lecturer, Campbell has set dances and given workshops throughout the United States and abroad at institutions such as The Juilliard School, USC Kaufman School of Dance, SUNY Purchase Conservatory of Dance, Princeton University, Yale University, NYU Tisch, Boston Conservatory, Marymount Manhattan College, Ballet Hispánico, The Ballet Akademien Göteborg, No)one. Art House, MUDA Africa, and Springboard Danse Montreal, among many others.
Campbell’s multi-faceted contributions to the field of dance have been recognized with numerous awards and honors including a 2019 Martha Hill Mid-Career Award, a 2011 Princess Grace Award, a Young Arts Level 1 Award, and a NAACP ACT-SO Gold Medal, and he was named a 2004 U.S. Presidential Scholar in the Arts. In 2020, Nigel joined the Board of Directors of Culture For One, a non-profit that transforms the lives of New York City children in foster care through the power of the arts.
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Platinum Table
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Golden Table
Andra and Ernesta Corvino Jeanne Ruddy
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Benefactor
____________
Patron
___________
Vernon Scott
Sponsor
Diana Byer Kathleen Harty Gray Elizabeth McPherson
Barrie Raffel Ani Udovicki Megan Williams
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Sponsors for Students
Neil Baldwin Ernesta Corvino Vernon Scott