Replay - Have you met... Ms. Ethel Bruneau €2
The Black Lindy Hoppers Fund and Collective Voices for Change present our fourth edition of Have you met...? with Montreal Tap legend Ms. Ethel Bruneau
Join us to listen to Ms Ethel discuss her entertainment life and teaching career. We are honored to be joined by her long time student and current Tap Master Travis Knights. Interviewing for this event is CVFC’s Hannah Lane.
Ms. Ethel Bruneau grew up in the heart of Harlem, breathing big band jazz day in and day out. As a little girl, she hung out with Count Basie, Billie Holiday, and Lena Horne at her uncle’s rehearsal hall for the Apollo Theatre. She attended Mary Bruce’s dancing school, where she occasionally took classes from Bill “Bojangles” Robinson when he would come to visit. Tony Award winning Tap dancer Honi Coles was her uncle, and she was friends with the Copasetics: Honi Coles, Bunny Briggs, Sandman Sims, Sammy Davis Jr.
When she was only a teenager, she was hired by Cab Calloway to go on a tour to Montreal with him and be a soubrette in his chorus line. There, she met vaudeville actress Pearl Bailey and went on a tour across the USA with her show “Hello Dolly”.
Ethel never left Montreal again, the neon city that was then called: “The Harlem of the North”. She became known as “Miss Swing” and “The Queen of Afro-Cuban”.
After her career as a showgirl, working 365 days/year in the some of the 980+ nightclubs of Ste Catherine St. alone, she realized her dream to open her own tap dance school. She shared her stories with hundreds of children throughout decades of practice, including her own kids and grandkids: “I want them to know the history! When you come into my school, you better sit down and learn about the music. Count Basie. They learn time and rhythm, they learn how to get into the pocket. They learn how to improvise from the time they are three and four.”
Travis Knights was one of them. Performer at heart, he carries on her legacy through his dance and his voice. He is the producer of the Tap Love Tour Podcast, a show that explores the deepest existential, political and artistic meditations of a tap dancer through hundreds of interviews with international and multigenerational artists. He started his career starring in the movie « Bojangles » with Gregory Hines and Savion Glover, and worked extensively with various dance companies, shows and festivals as a performer, choreographer, artistic consultant and director for international events.
The Black Lindy Hoppers Fund and Collective Voices for Change present our fourth edition of Have you met...? with Montreal Tap legend Ms. Ethel Bruneau
Join us to listen to Ms Ethel discuss her entertainment life and teaching career. We are honored to be joined by her long time student and current Tap Master Travis Knights. Interviewing for this event is CVFC’s Hannah Lane.
Ms. Ethel Bruneau grew up in the heart of Harlem, breathing big band jazz day in and day out. As a little girl, she hung out with Count Basie, Billie Holiday, and Lena Horne at her uncle’s rehearsal hall for the Apollo Theatre. She attended Mary Bruce’s dancing school, where she occasionally took classes from Bill “Bojangles” Robinson when he would come to visit. Tony Award winning Tap dancer Honi Coles was her uncle, and she was friends with the Copasetics: Honi Coles, Bunny Briggs, Sandman Sims, Sammy Davis Jr.
When she was only a teenager, she was hired by Cab Calloway to go on a tour to Montreal with him and be a soubrette in his chorus line. There, she met vaudeville actress Pearl Bailey and went on a tour across the USA with her show “Hello Dolly”.
Ethel never left Montreal again, the neon city that was then called: “The Harlem of the North”. She became known as “Miss Swing” and “The Queen of Afro-Cuban”.
After her career as a showgirl, working 365 days/year in the some of the 980+ nightclubs of Ste Catherine St. alone, she realized her dream to open her own tap dance school. She shared her stories with hundreds of children throughout decades of practice, including her own kids and grandkids: “I want them to know the history! When you come into my school, you better sit down and learn about the music. Count Basie. They learn time and rhythm, they learn how to get into the pocket. They learn how to improvise from the time they are three and four.”
Travis Knights was one of them. Performer at heart, he carries on her legacy through his dance and his voice. He is the producer of the Tap Love Tour Podcast, a show that explores the deepest existential, political and artistic meditations of a tap dancer through hundreds of interviews with international and multigenerational artists. He started his career starring in the movie « Bojangles » with Gregory Hines and Savion Glover, and worked extensively with various dance companies, shows and festivals as a performer, choreographer, artistic consultant and director for international events.
The Black Lindy Hoppers Fund and Collective Voices for Change present our fourth edition of Have you met...? with Montreal Tap legend Ms. Ethel Bruneau
Join us to listen to Ms Ethel discuss her entertainment life and teaching career. We are honored to be joined by her long time student and current Tap Master Travis Knights. Interviewing for this event is CVFC’s Hannah Lane.
Ms. Ethel Bruneau grew up in the heart of Harlem, breathing big band jazz day in and day out. As a little girl, she hung out with Count Basie, Billie Holiday, and Lena Horne at her uncle’s rehearsal hall for the Apollo Theatre. She attended Mary Bruce’s dancing school, where she occasionally took classes from Bill “Bojangles” Robinson when he would come to visit. Tony Award winning Tap dancer Honi Coles was her uncle, and she was friends with the Copasetics: Honi Coles, Bunny Briggs, Sandman Sims, Sammy Davis Jr.
When she was only a teenager, she was hired by Cab Calloway to go on a tour to Montreal with him and be a soubrette in his chorus line. There, she met vaudeville actress Pearl Bailey and went on a tour across the USA with her show “Hello Dolly”.
Ethel never left Montreal again, the neon city that was then called: “The Harlem of the North”. She became known as “Miss Swing” and “The Queen of Afro-Cuban”.
After her career as a showgirl, working 365 days/year in the some of the 980+ nightclubs of Ste Catherine St. alone, she realized her dream to open her own tap dance school. She shared her stories with hundreds of children throughout decades of practice, including her own kids and grandkids: “I want them to know the history! When you come into my school, you better sit down and learn about the music. Count Basie. They learn time and rhythm, they learn how to get into the pocket. They learn how to improvise from the time they are three and four.”
Travis Knights was one of them. Performer at heart, he carries on her legacy through his dance and his voice. He is the producer of the Tap Love Tour Podcast, a show that explores the deepest existential, political and artistic meditations of a tap dancer through hundreds of interviews with international and multigenerational artists. He started his career starring in the movie « Bojangles » with Gregory Hines and Savion Glover, and worked extensively with various dance companies, shows and festivals as a performer, choreographer, artistic consultant and director for international events.