WATCH: Tap dancing to the top
BROSSARD — Ethel Bruneau put on her tap shoes, clutched two canes, and stood up. For about 10 seconds, she moved one foot forward, then back, shaking a bit of rust off before she started tapping the black-and-white shoes to the floor. Then muscle memory kicked in and she was back at it: tap dancing at the age of 79.
This is something she said she’s been doing since she was three and something the Harlem native has been doing in Montreal since 1953.
“At that time, if you walked down St. Catherine Street it was like Las Vegas,” she said from her home in Brossard.
“It was like being in Hollywood.”
Bruneau said she came from a strict pair of parents who initially didn’t want their daughter performing on the road. But any resistance quickly melted away after she was spotted by a scout at Harlem’s Apollo Theater while she was watching a friend try out for a slot in Cab Calloway’s travelling act.
“She said, ‘Well what do you do?’ and I said ‘I sing and I dance,’ and she said ‘well come up and let’s see you.'”
She was signed on the spot for a three-week engagement that ended up becoming a lifetime in Montreal.
She started teaching tap in the early 1960s, which is something she says has kept her young.
“It’s like if someone had given me gold, if someone had given me a million dollars,” she said.
“It’s such a thrill to know that you’ve taught somebody something.”
Bruneau’s tap school still operates in a Dorval storefront, and the walls inside are covered with photographs of her past classes and the awards that former students have won in dance competitions.
“The moment I mention her name, most people know who she is and they’re blown away,” said Majiza Philip, her granddaughter.
Alhough Bruneau is still teaching at the school, she has passed the torch largely to Philip.
“She’s a legend,” she added.
“I mean all the people who she’s taught, they remember her their whole lives.”
Comments