Written by Tanya Terry
Featured photo courtesy of the CS Mott Foundation
Alfred Bruce Bradley, tap dancer and founder and CEO of Tapology, age 75 this year, was recently awarded a $60K Taproot Fellowship from the National Funder, the Alliance for California Traditional Arts (ACTA). The fellowship is designed to support artists’ practice and directly invest $10K of the award into their communities.
Bradley was self taught and began to study tap dance relatively late-in his 30s. Yet, he was able to worked 20 years nationally as a tap dancer and told the Courier one of his greatest accomplishments was dancing with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Bradley, who originally gained recognition as a theatre performer, has been involved at the McCree Theatre and was always active in church as a singer. He also had a jazz band called The Keys of Submission.
“After 40 years of community service and teaching dance in the Flint area, I was excited to receive the money where I could utilize it for things I needed with my journey and with my family,” shared Bradley. “It still allowed me to make a contribution to the organization of the endowed scholarship. Of course I want to donate the $10,000 to Tapology, which has been my vehicle of operation. And it came as an incentive to continue the work at another level. I’m bringing younger people into the organization to take on leadership. I’ve been doing this a long time.
“I need to be able to continue to impact the organization from another perspective, and to focus on my well being and health so that I continue to benefit from the blessing of being able to dance-and being able to continue to carve a way and work towards sustainability of the organization to impact more young people and to promote the culture and the history of the dance,” Bradley said.
Bradley stated the board of directors for Tapology will have input on how the $10K will be used.
“I have a lot of needs,” said Bradley. “I have new young staff that are qualified that have master’s degrees and are working on doctorate degrees.
“With a lot of the work I’ve done over the years, my passion for the work wasn’t equaled by the pay.
“So, in order to have sustainability of the organization, it’s got to be more attractive to young people who have the skill set and the desire to take on this work. So, a lot of those dollars will go to help building that. We give away scholarships every year to the kids participating. There’s many need in the organization in terms of funding sources. But, specifically, I’m trying to focus on establishing a strong base of young people who can continue this work.”
Bradley pointed out that tap dancing is linked to African culture, which he added has tremendously impacted American society.
“Many of your tap steps come directly from African dances-the polyrhythm-all forms of polyrhythms actually derive from Africa. With many of the dances that we were passing on, many of us did not realize we were doing African dancing.”
The Library of Congress article “Tap Dance in America: A Short History” states:
“As Africans were transplanted to America, African religious circle dance rituals, which had been of central importance to their life and culture, were adapted and transformed (Stuckey 1987). The African American Juba, for example, derived from the African djouba or gioube, moved in a counterclockwise circle and was distinguished by the rhythmic shuffling of feet, clapping hands, and “patting” the body, as if it were a large drum. With the passage of he Slave Laws in the 1740s prohibiting the beating of drums for the fear of slave uprisings, there developed creative substitutes for drumming, such as bone- clapping, jawboning, hand-clapping, and percussive footwork.”
Bradley feels his greatest impact has been teaching the young people, which includes sharing the history of tap dance.
“Rhythm is a form of attraction to humanity. Tap dancing is part of rhythm. It’s the root of it.”
Through Tapology, Bradley and his team focus on bringing classes and performances to urban schools and neighborhoods. Bradley said he is proud that through his dance form he has been able to bring kids together from all different racial and socioeconomic backgrounds. He has also seen lifelong friendships develop between many kids who have gone on professionally to work.
Bradley expressed immense gratitude to the many individuals who he has trained under, worked with or been influenced by throughout the years, and the impact they have enabled him to make. He said he was thankful for many individuals, such as Lyn Gibson, Lloyd Storey, Diane Walker, Alde Lewis and Sheila Miller Graham.
“I’ve worked with some of the greatest tap dancers in the world,” Bradley said.
The Alliance for California Traditional Arts states on its website:
“This year’s announcement arrives at a challenging moment for organizations that champion and center equity, tradition and cultural expression. As federal support for cultural and community-based initiatives faces mounting challenges, ACTA stands firm in the conviction that culture bearers are not a luxury; they are the antidote.
“Their artistry fortifies mental health, nurtures intergenerational connections and activates community resilience. In an era marked by book bans, erasure and division, these artists offer something profoundly unifying: a vision of society rooted in dignity, tradition, and collective care.”
