Co-owned well-known North Hills dance studio for 58 years
Elda Mae Bruckman loved children and loved dancing.
Combining the two was a dream that she lived for 58 years, as co-owner of the former Bruckman School of Dance in McCandless.
Mrs. Bruckman, 86, died Nov. 18 at her home in Austin, Texas, after a long battle with heart disease.
Growing up in Ben Avon, Mrs. Bruckman took singing, dancing and piano classes with masters such as J. Fred and Mildred Lissfelt of Shadyside, Frank Eckl of the North Side and Thalia Mara from New York City.
When she was a senior at Avonworth High School in 1950, then-Elda Mae Woods was asked to perform with a dance instructor named Charles “Chick” Bruckman.
“I was putting on a show at the Chartiers Valley Country Club and it was primarily a dance production, but I needed a vocalist and a friend of mine recommended Elda Mae,” recalled Mr. Bruckman, who was 21 at the time.
“I was dazzled right away,” said Mr. Bruckman, now 88. “I thought she had a beautiful voice and was attractive. We had immediate eye-to-eye contact and we were drawn to each other. It wasn’t my nature to ask someone to go out with me on such a short acquaintance, but she was different.”
Mr. Bruckman told Ms. Woods he had two tickets to the Ice Capades — although he didn’t —- and asked her to join him. When she agreed, he wasted no time in buying the best pair of tickets he could find.
The couple married in June 1954, and Mrs. Bruckman joined her husband, who founded a dance company in the auditorium of the Avalon Borough Hall several years earlier.
The two began teaching cotillion classes for junior high students at Avalon, Bellevue and other local districts.
“We taught ballroom dance classes back when kids and their parents did the same type of dancing,” such as the foxtrot, waltzes and swing dancing, Mr. Bruckman said.
In 1960, the couple purchased the home on Perry Highway that would serve as a dance studio downstairs and family living space above.
The Bruckmans branched out beyond private classes and worked with schools to organize productions, including North Allegheny High School, where they choreographed musicals for 13 years.
They also volunteered as officers of the non-profit North Hills Performing Arts, with Mr. Bruckman serving as president while his wife worked as chairman of ticketing.
“It was a delightful time for us,” Mr. Bruckman said about their years with the cultural organization that sponsored concerts, musicals and other performances from 1964 through 1989.
Mrs. Bruckman taught ballet and dance at their school, and developed her own preschool dance program that was unique at the time, her husband said.
She went back to school as an adult and earned an associate degree in early childhood education from the Community College of Allegheny County. She also took classes in elementary education at the University of Pittsburgh.
“She was so talented and so dependable,” her husband said. “She was a marvelous choreographer and waltzes were her specialty, I think.”
The last time he danced with his wife was when the couple retired five years ago, Mr. Bruckman said.
“We did a ballroom number together always after we closed our recitals,” he recalled. “Our last recital was in 2013, and we did the waltz. The song was one of our very personal favorites called “Always” — it was just a beautiful song that we both liked very much.”
The song, which was written by Irving Berlin and given as a wedding present to his wife in 1926, was famous among the staff and students at the dance school, said the Bruckmans’ daughter, Carla Bruckman-Hibbs, of Austin.
“The annual recital was always on my parents’ anniversary,” Ms. Bruckman-Hibbs said.
One year when an audio glitch kept the song from being played, the audience made sure that the tradition continued.
“Everyone in the audience sang the song for them so they could dance,” she said. “It was amazing.”
The couple rented the studio for several years before selling it last month.
Along with her husband and daughter, Mrs. Bruckman is survived by daughters Charlene Levine, of Wellington, Fla., and Deborah Bardun, of Weirton, W.Va.; eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by a sister, Arlene Dagenais.
The funeral was held Nov. 23.