Tap Dance Festival 2014
/Master Classes
Ethel Bruneau, now 72 years old, was born in Harlem. Ethel Bruneau began her life of tap at only 3 years of age. Her parents saw her talent and enrolled her in the Mary Bruce's school of dance, a very prominent dancing school in Harlem. Ethel Bruneau got a chance to come to Montreal in 1953 when she had a three week dancing gig with none other than the great Cab Calloway. She loved Montreal so much she decided to make it her new home. Ethel Bruneau made her career here in Montreal, where she has danced her way to a happy life. She wakes up in the morning to dance, and even with some hip pain once in awhile she says dancing puts joy in her life and she goes to bed happy. She has also put joy into the life of the hundreds of students who learned the art of tap in her dancing studio as well.
Ethel Bruneau
Our 75 minute Master classes are offered in 3 skill levels (Advanced beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced) and are taught by the treasures of the tap community. Our Master artists have made life-long careers tap dancing. They will be sharing with us on Saturday, July 6th and Sunday, July 7th
Bob Fitch has worn many hats in his lengthy professional career (actor, director, magician, singer, dancer). He counts twenty-seven Broadway Shows, including, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum with Whoopi Goldberg, and The Will Rogers Follies as Clem, Will's father. He received Broadway's Burns-Mantle Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical for his villainous portrayal of Rooster Hannigan in the original Annie, receiving a Carbonell Nomination for both direction and portrayal. He also staged the 1992 National Tour of Annie.
Other principal roles include: Mack & Mabel; Coco, with Katherine Hepburn; Mame, with Angela Lansbury; Promises, Promises, with Jerry Orbach; and Accidental Death Of An Anarchist. He played Second Banana to Mickey Rooney in Sugar Babies in Atlantic City, Lake Tahoe and the Desert Inn in Las Vegas. He toured with Liza Minnelli in her original act, plus Flora,The Red Menace on Broadway. And he has Two Hirschfelds!
In films, he appeared in Stephen King's Thinner and with Steve Martin in Pennies from Heaven. He guested and choreographed on Burt Reynold's Evening Shade. His direction received a MAC Award (NY Cabaret) for Jeff McBride's Mask, Myth, And Magic. He has taught dance for all the major National Dance Teacher Organizations. He created the coffee cup illusion for the second David Blaine TV Special and coached also coached David Blaine for his second TV Special. His Fitch/Kohler Holdout was utilized for several effects by Criss Angel.
He has dozens of TV commercials to his credit utilizing magic, juggling, fire-eating, dance and physical comedy. He is well known for his coin, topit and holdout work.
Bob and his wife Pauline, run a yearly Performance Workshop for Professional Magicians, He has coached performers such as David Copperfield and Jeff McBride.
He was consultant, coach and writer for PHENOMENON, the NBC Reality series, as well as for Alain Nu's four one-hour Discovery Channel specials (The Mysterious World of Alain Nu).He has directed full evening shows for Thomas Solomon (Elusions), Jeff McBride and Eugene Burger (Atlantic City), Paul Gertner's one-man show (Ten Fingers), as well as R.J. Lewis and Aaron Raditz.
Bob Fitch - Eccentric Tap Dance
Sandy Silva's work stands at the vanguard of contemporary artistry in traditional music and dance. Drawing on percussive dance practices from many regions, including Hungary, Appalachia, Cape Breton, and Andalusia, as well as the idioms of circus, contemporary dance, and theatre, Sandy weaves a dialogue between these vocabularies, blending the local and the modern in an organic, bodily response. The result is an incredibly dynamic and emotive visual expression created at the crossroads of movement and sound.
Committed to the craft of bodily rhythm-making, Sandy transcends the world of sound and gesture to engage emotionally with cultural form. She is a dynamic and consummate performer: her very presence can hush a crowd with the faintest whisper of a shoe against the floor or set the stage alight with blazing body rhythms.
Sandy Silva has been teaching percussive dance for over 20 years. She began studying with master dancers and assimilating her learning through performing, creating and teaching with musicians from multiple musical genres. She draws upon the essence of these music/rhythm dance styles and is able to integrate them into a contemporary style of her own.
Sandy's innovative work with both professional and amateur modern dancers, tap dancers, buck and step dancers, circus artists, schoolchildren, hip hop dancers, vocalists, percussionists and musicians has gained her an international reputation as a truly creative and inspirational teacher. Her work teaches students the essential tools for listening, analyzing and embodying music as a human instrument.
Sandy Silva - Body Percussion