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Ethel Bruneau (Ethel Mae Waterman) b January 1, 1936 is a tap dancer and teacher in Montréal, Canada. She spent her formative early years growing up in New York City during the Harlem renaissance and emigrated to Canada in the 1950s. She founded her school, Ethel Bruneau Tap Dancing School, in 1961 in Dorval, Québec, a suburb of Montréal. Among her former students are celebrated tap dancers Travis Knights and Justin Jackson.

Early Life

Born in New York City to a Barbadian father and Jamaican mother, she was one of 16 children born to a Barbadian father and Jamaican mother. She began studying dance at age four at the Mary Bruce Dance Academy, Harlem.

From age nine to her early teens, she performed with her cousin Cornelius “Poppy” Scott as part of a tap duo called The Melody Twins. Mary Bruce was their agent, finding them work on the boardwalk in Atlantic City and in USO shows at army bases. At the same time, she performed in Bruce’s ensemble, the Brucettes, appearing in variety TV such as Ed Sullivan’s The Toast of the Town and Milton Berle’s Texaco Star Theatre. [1]

Her formal training included study with José Limon, Martha Graham, Honi Cole and at the Katherine Dunham School.[2] She graduated from the High School of the Performing Arts in New York in the early 1950s.[3]

“I hung around with most of the masters. I hung around with Honi, Charlie, Sandman Sims….’cause I lived five blocks from the Apollo Theatre, so I was hanging out backstage and out on the street in the back. I tapped with whoever was on the bill that week; I was out back getting lessons, they’re tapping –I’m learning.”[4]

Montréal

In 1953, Bruneau toured through Montreal as a dancer with Cab Calloway’s jazz orchestra.[5] A two-week gig that got extended by a week, Bruneau’s dance was seen by an agent, who invited her to stay and promised her work 365 days a year.[6] She decided to stay, playing at local clubs including Rockhead’s Paradise, the Aldo, the Cavendish Club and the Black Bottom. She was billed as “Miss Swing” and the “Queen of Afro-Cuban.”

In 1953, Bruneau toured through Montréal as a dancer with Cab Calloway’s jazz orchestra. A two-week gig that got extended by a week, Bruneau’s dance was seen by an agent, Roy Cooper, who invited her to stay and promised her work 365 days a year. She decided to stay, playing at local clubs including Rockhead’s Paradise, the Aldo, the Cavendish Club and the Black Bottom. She was billed as “Miss Swing” and the “Queen of Afro-Cuban.”[7]

From 1959-1961, she toured North America with singer Pearl Bailey and her brother, the tap dancer Bill Bailey. In 1964, as a member of the Arleigh Peterson Dancers, she performed alongside the legendary dancer/cabaret performer Josephine Baker. She opened her school that year.

“My deal was to come to Montreal to be an entertainer. At the time, it was the Las Vegas of North America. I wanted to take jazz classes, [but there were] no classes. I decided to open a school.”

Personal Life

Bruneau married Henri "Ti Rouge" Bruneau in 1957. She gave birth to a daughter < > in 1961; and a son < > in 1970.

[1] Stevens, Lys. “Ethel Bruneau: Montreal’s Rhythm Tap Legend.” Dance Collection Danse. No 71/Fall 2011; 28-33. http://www.dcd.ca/download/71DCDTheMagazine.pdf

[2] Stevens, Lys; and Templeton, Melissa, Editors. “In Conversation: Jazzing Culture/Culturing Jazz.” The Dance Current; March/April 2013; pp 49-53; pg 50.

[3] Stevens 2011: 29.

[4] Stevens 2011: 29.

[5]Stevens and Templeton: 2013; pg 49.

[6] Gutnick, David. “Ethel Bruneau: Montreal’s Queen of Tap on Why Dancing ‘is a religion.’” CBC News. September 14, 2014. https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/ethel-bruneau-montreal-s-queen-of-tap-on-why-dancing-is-a-religion-1.2763422

[7] Stevens 2011: 31.