Hector Mercado

Academy Dean

A native of New York, Hector Mercado began his training at the High School of Performing Arts, where he graduated with honors. Upon his graduation, he accepted a full scholarship to the Harkness School. The seminal event in his dance career was joining the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre Company, where he was a principal dancer, and the dance partner of the acclaimed Judith Jamison. On Broadway he starred in Your Arms Too Short…, Cats, and West Side Story, playing ‘Nardo’ to Ms. Allen’s ‘Anita’. He has also worked with Jerome Robbins, Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Laurents and Steven Sondheim. . Mercado’s first efforts in film were Slow Dancing in the Big City and Hair. He has choreographed an original production of Terrance Mann’s Dreamgirls, the Los Angeles production of Fantasticks directed by Ken Page, and Queen Margolis