BS Summary: This article contains 30 faulty reasoning types, including Anecdotal, Appeal to Emotion, and Availability Heuristic, with Halo Effect as the most egregious example at 26.3% saturation with 289 hits. Analysis detected 2,166 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,098 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 57.5% and a BS Rank of 62% (8,335 of 21,886 articles). This article is worse (more manipulative) than 61.90% of the article peer group.
Reginald Ray-Savage, dancer, choreographer, and beloved teacher, mentor, and inspiration to many, passed away on May 17.
He was 67.
Oakland and the dance world have lost one of their most extraordinary artistic voices and “one bad-ass man,” in the words of dance critic Rachel Howard.
This obituary is part of an Oaklandside remembrance collection, honoring some of the remarkable lives lived in this city.
If you’d like to submit an obit for a loved one in our next collection, please get in touch.
Born Reginald Ray, Jr., in St.
Louis, Missouri, on September 5, 1958, he formally adopted the name Savage in the early ‘80s to honor the great Archie Savage, his mentor at Katherine Dunham’s Performing Arts Training Center in East St.
Louis, Illinois, where his dance training journey began in 1980.
Within a few short years, he started dancing professionally with Katherine Dunham Dance Company, making dance a way of life.
His grit, tenacity, and notorious work ethic brought him scholarships to train at prestigious dance institutions, including The Ailey School in New York City and Ruth Page School of Dance in Chicago, under the direction of acclaimed ballet instructor Larry Long and Dolores Lipinski-Long.
Savage danced with several companies, including Joel Hall Dance Company, Ruth Page Ballet Chicago, Lyric Opera, Chicago City Ballet, American Festival Ballet, and in touring productions of “The Music Man” and “A Chorus Line.”
In 1989, Savage moved to Oakland, where he started teaching seven days a week at Shawl-Anderson Dance Center in Berkeley and CitiCenter Dance Theatre (now The Malonga Casquelourd Center for the Arts) in Oakland.
If you were lucky enough to spot him outside of the dance studio, you would probably find him holding court at an outdoor table of Rockridge’s Oliveto café for hours on end.
An avid and voracious reader, and self-proclaimed bookworm, Savage enjoyed quietly poring over local newspapers and books on dance (anything on Balanchine was a must-have), biographies (of artists like Lucian Freud, musicians like Duke Ellington, and actors from Peter O’Toole to Cary Grant), and even sports (he was a huge Vince Lombardi fan) — anything that could be used as inspiration.
One piece of wisdom he would pass along to young people working on pursuing their dream was that your job is not to “go after your dream” or to “do the work”; your job is to stay inspired to do the work — and he walked that talk in spades!
If he was not quietly reading or people-watching, he was having lively and varied conversations on all things life with passers-by.
They would undoubtedly recognize the fixture he had become.
He always added to the visual landscape with his signature dapper ensembles, often a sport coat with flower in the lapel, and always scarves, earrings, ample jewelry and a walking stick.
His daily teaching practice gained him a devoted following attracted to his no-nonsense, impassioned, and effective old-school teaching style.
Within just a few years, a group of his most committed core students begged him to start a company to showcase his work.
Having made teaching his primary focus, Mr.
Savage was not at all interested in starting a dance company.
But the students persisted.
One day, instead of holding his regular class, Savage made his students watch professional dance videos, from about 3 p.m. to 2 a.m.!
From Alvin Ailey, Dance Theatre of Harlem, New York City Ballet, Martha Graham, and Paul Taylor, to whatever PBS dance special he could find, he made them watch it, prying their eyes open if they dared start to fall asleep.
His point: If you donʻt want to work to be this good, I refuse to start a company.
The next day, they went to class and the rest, as they say, is history: In 1992, he founded Savage Jazz Dance Company (SJDC).
Over the course of 30 years, Savage went on to produce more than 100 original works.
He toured SJDC nationally and internationally.
His dance company was the first to be invited to perform at Casa del Jazz in Rome, where it drew a packed house and rave reviews.
Savage built SJDC into one of the Bay Area’s most respected companies, creating a signature style known for its combination of disciplined training, rich artistic musical expression, and raw energy.
In 2003, Savage was recruited to join the Oakland School for the Arts as chair of its School of Dance.
Over the next two decades, he created and maintained a strong dance program, recognized and respected by other dance institutions for forging well-trained dancers and resilient people.
The depth of Savage’s tough love and care, and the skill of his teaching and mentoring, are reflected in the careers of his students, who have gone on to dance with San Francisco Ballet, Boston Ballet, Martha Graham Dance Company, The Lion King musical, Mark Morris Dance Group, Janet Jackson, Ariana Grande, and companies across the globe.
Savage lived his life as tribute to the teachers who shared their wisdom on art and life with him.
With a palpable enthusiasm for bringing out the best in people and passing the torch to the next generation, he poured into his students.
His infectious energy, love of life, and generosity of spirit inspired countless souls, both inside and outside of the dance studio.
The number of individuals with whom Mr.
Savage made deep and meaningful connections is truly astounding, but the relationship he formed with longtime SJDC dance artist and life partner, Alison Hurley, was indescribably special and profound.
Over 25 years in his company, Hurley grew to become his artistic muse, “able to shape Savage’s plastique with snapshot definition, reserved and mysterious,” according to Howard.
She was a fierce protector and stager of his beautiful and powerful choreography.
Savage and Hurley developed a singular bond through dance, from developing choreography, training in class, setting repertory, dancing, rehearsing, and performing, to becoming a dynamic duo in their teaching and mentoring, often each other’s yin and yang.
Savage would often say that one of the things dance taught him besides discipline was the ability to love without being loved in return (because you’ll never get out of dance what you put into it), the very definition of unconditional love.
And the love that Savage and Hurley shared, brought into existence through dance, then growing far beyond the confines of the studio, was genuinely unconditional, immeasurable, and infinite.
Reginald Ray-Savage will forever be missed, remembered, and lovingly quoted.
May his inextinguishable spirit and impact live on in all the lives he touched.
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