Stepdancer honoured posthumously for his craft

BEDFORD
By Kevin Toal - The Weekly News
On Jan 10, stepdancer, Merrill Bruce, was honoured posthumously with a lifetime achievement award. The presentation took place in the Schooner Room at the Halifax casino as part of the 11th annual African Nova Scotian Music Associations award show. Accepting on his behalf was son, Ross Bruce, a resident of Bedford and an avid stepdancer himself. Family members from all over Nova Scotia were among the nearly sold-out crowd in attendance.
"It was such a good feeling accepting the award," recalled Bruce, though he admitted to being overwhelmed by emotion. "I'm used to speaking to people and I'm never at a loss for words. But I'm not even sure what I said up on stage." He joked that, when the awards are shown on EastLink, he'll find out later what he said.
The award is the culmination of several years' worth of filling out the necessary forms, providing background information about his father, and a desire to keep a family history alive.
Merrill Bruce, who passed away in 1974 at the age of 81, performed with many well-known Maritime country and western stars such as Hank Snow, Don Landry and Wilf Carter.
He was also a frequent guest act on Don Messer's Jubilee and the Uncle Mel Radio Show. Among the many awards Bruce won for stepdancing were the Maritime Buck and Wing Dance Championship.
Bruce's son, Ross, recalled that his father even danced with the evening's other lifetime achievement award recipients, The Missionaires, a musical group from Yarmouth.
"Younger people don't know what he had done," Ross Bruce explained. "It's a lost art. (Today) no one really teaches stepdance."
It wasn't only for his craft that Bruce's father was important. He performed at a time when black artists faced prejudice and hardships on a regular basis.
"What we're trying to do is let young people know there have been a lot of trailblazers like Mr. Bruce," said Louis Gannon, president of ANSMA.
"They were doing things when it was a lot tougher for people like Mr. Bruce. We need to show respect for the people who came before us. Way back then, they opened up the doors."
Gannon reflected with regret that many of the honourees of the Lifetime Achievement Award have passed on and are not able to receive recognition themselves. He explained that of those receiving awards, there are only two surviving members of The Missionaires.
However, the legacy of the recipients will continue on. Ross Bruce, with the help of his wife Carolyn, is currently preparing the necessary applications to honour his father with a place in the Nova Scotia Country Music Hall of Fame.
For more information on the African Nova Scotian Music Awards, visit htpp:// www.ansma.com/.
atoal@ns.sympatico.ca