Another great addition to the show this year is a blues band from the Fine Arts Core Education (F.A.C.E) School. Apart from the highly acclaimed FACE Blues Band this years line up will include the jazzy, bluesy, sexy sounds of Carolyn-Fe and her band, the hard rocking blues of “Ain*t Done Yet”, dance numbers by the students of the “Ethel Bruneau School of Dance” and of course the lady herself, Ethel Bruneau, backed by “The Miss Swing Band”
Despite suffering a heart attack that lead to double bypass surgery, Ethel says she would perform at this years show “even if they have to wheel me up there in a wheelchair!”
My friends I urge you to please help us help this wonderful woman in the work she has done, is doing and will continue to do.
Ethel Bruneau
Ethel Mae Waterman Bruneau, Harlem-born professional dancer and instructor, graduated from the New York City High School of the Performing Arts. She arrived here in 1953 as part of the Cab Calloway Revue. That Montreal engagement was supposed to last three weeks, but Ethel never left. She went on to earn a Diploma in Early Childhood Studies from McGill University and became a nursery school teacher.
Montreal legend, Ethel Bruneau, popularized Black Rhythm Tap, known as hoofin', in the city. She has preserved this hand-me-down dance form and is one of only two people now teaching it in Canada. She danced with Bill "Mr. Bojangles," the god- father of tap, and was among the first Black children to perform at Carnegie Hall and on the Ed Sullivan Show. One of her students, Travis Knight, danced with Gregory Hines at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, and Hines praised Ethel as the "Tap Queen of Montreal."
Ethel was at one time the MC at Rock-head's Paradise and also traveled with Pearl Bailey's Big Review in 1959-60. She has taught children at elementary schools in Beaconsfield and Baie D'Urfé and adults at the West Island Dance Centre, St. John the Baptist Church in Pointe Claire and the École de Ballet Nouveau Siècle. Her st u-dents range in age from 2 to 72. "You're never too young and never too old."
An example of staunch determination, Ethel mortgaged her home to fund classes for her students. "A student's lack of money has never deterred me from teaching those interested in learning to dance." In return, she asks only for their desire to dance, their undivided attention and their dancing feet.
Since 1995, Mrs. Bruneau has conducted workshops that have brought Montreal such tap dance masters as Diane Walker and Van the Man Porter, who have lent their talent and expertise to children who would not otherwise have such opportunities. This was no easy feat, for Ethel has often used money from her own pocket to help fund these ventures. The most recent example was The Montreal Tap Dance Society, through which she handed out 40 student scholarships. This is not unusual, she feels. "You have to give in order to receive. It is not always about the money."
Over the many years, Ethel has received numerous awards and acknowledgements, including the Rosetti Lifetime Achievement Award and the Martin Luther King Award in Dance Sounds of Blackness. She has been featured in local newspapers and has made numerous radio and television appearances. Ethel Bruneau, another one who does us proud.