Bruce, Mary, 1900-1995

Sadie Bruce and her sister, Mary Bruce, each operated their own dance schools in the Bronzeville section of Chicago. Sadie Bruce's dance studio was located at 54th and Calumet; Mary Bruce's was at 58th and South Parkway. The schools gave dance and music training to thousands of Bronzeville youth, and helped build public awareness of dance and music in the Black community.

Mary Bruce, who grew up in Chicago, Illinois, studied ballet as a teenager. It was reportedly after seeing a performance of Lew Leslie’s Blackbirds that she decided to get training in tap and show dancing. Bruce had opened her own school by the mid-1920s. Her annual recitals at the Eighth Street Theater in downtown Chicago became well-attended events covered by the local press. Her pupils during this time, included her sister, Sadie Bruce, as well as two future star dancers, Jeni LeGon and Marie Bryant. Around 1937, Bruce moved to New York and opened a new studio on West 125th Street in Harlem. She initially sought business by approaching dancers at the Savoy and other ballrooms of Harlem for lessons, but, throughout her career, also became well-known for providing free lessons to students who could not afford tuition. Bruce’s annual “Starbuds” recitals, often given at Carnegie Hall, were equally popular with the public and talent scouts. Among the varied performers said to have studied at Bruce’s New York school were: Martina Arroyo, Marlon Brando, Ruby Dee, and Josephine Premice.

Bruce, a resident of Manhattan, died at the age of 95 on December 12, 1995 at the Goldwater Memorial Hospital on Roosevelt Island.