The honoree used her acceptance speech to hand the award back to the room. Accepting the Icon Award at the Gala of the Stars on Thursday, October 22, at The Beverly Hilton, Missy Elliott told the dancers in front of her that the people behind the headliner are artists in their own right, and the sold-out benefit raised more than $760,000 for Dancers Against Cancer while she said it.
The gala is Dancers Against Cancer’s largest annual fundraiser, and the money goes to a specific population: dancers, choreographers, educators, and their families dealing with cancer. The organization counts 15 years of work, more than $6.7 million raised in direct aid, and more than 500 lives touched. Thursday’s total also moved the event itself forward. The 2025 gala raised $717,218, according to the organization. This year, with the ballroom sold out and a livestream running for everyone who could not get a seat, the figure passed $760,000.
An Icon Award handed from one icon to another
Janet Jackson presented the award, a year after she received the same honor at the same gala, where Liza Minnelli presented it to her. Jackson kept her remarks on the work itself. “Missy Elliott helped make dancers impossible to ignore,” she said, crediting Elliott with lifting choreography inside her own productions and with encouraging dancers to keep their individuality in front of the camera.
Elliott answered with the fullest statement of the night, delivered to the dancers rather than about them. “Dancers are not just props on a stage behind artists. What y’all give is energy, emotion, expression, excitement, entertainment to an artist’s show. You bring life to an artist’s lyrics on that stage. Y’all are artists too! Because it takes incredible skill, dedication, discipline, practice and passion to do what you do,” she said. The point has receipts in her own catalog: Elliott’s videos built their visual language on choreography, and a generation of dancers got screen time, close-ups, and names because of it.
The rest of the room
Maks Chmerkovskiy hosted. Toni Basil, whose “Mickey” put a cheerleader’s precision into pop history, received the Lifetime Achievement Award. Vincent Paterson, who choreographed for Michael Jackson and Madonna, received the Vanguard Award. Paula Abdul presented the Paula Abdul Legacy Award as a posthumous tribute to Chita Rivera, the Broadway dancer who died in 2024. Hilaria Baldwin was named Philanthropist of the Year, and Anthony Kanec performed a dance tribute to Elliott during the program.
The structure of the evening is the argument Elliott made from the stage. A benefit for dancers, hosted by a dancer, gave its top honor to a recording artist, and the recording artist spent her minutes explaining why the dancers were the story. Dancers Against Cancer’s pitch to its donors has always been plain: when cancer arrives, a working dancer’s income usually stops before the treatment does, and the organization pays for the gap. On Thursday the room paid $760,000 toward that gap, and Elliott gave the donors the sentence to take home. “Y’all are artists too.”
The Social Register’s event directory tracks the season’s galas, benefits, and society evenings. Plan your next evening there.
