Ruth Beckford — trailblazing dancer and choreographer
When Ruth Beckford danced across the stage, her students were left in awe. She would often tell them that dancing was her gift to the world. She didn’t need to practice, didn’t need to learn the art of mastering a rhythm. It came naturally to her.
“I think one of the things that stands out for me is how gracefully she moved across the floor with her statuesque body,” said Mildred Howard, one of Beckford’s former students. “I had never seen anything like it.”
Beckford, a longtime Oakland resident, was a renowned dancer, choreographer and community activist. She died May 8 of natural causes at age 93.
Howard recalled being a 5-year-old girl, sneaking through the hallways of a South Berkeley church and peeking through the bannisters near the church’s balcony to watch Beckford teach dance to her students.
Beckford was born in Oakland and was the youngest of four children. She had her first dance lesson at age 3 and began training in tap, ballet, Spanish castanets, baton twirling and acrobatics.
“She was a contortionist. Her body could do anything,” said Deborah Vaughan, a former student. “She could take her leg and wrap it around her neck if she wanted to.”
When Beckford graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1944, she joined the companies of notable dancers, including Florelle Batsford, Anna Halprin and Welland Lathrop. Beckford was the only black dancer in their modern dance companies. When Beckford came onstage, the audience would gasp in surprise, said Brenda Payton, Beckford’s friend.
When she was just 17, Beckford toured with Katherine Dunham, who was credited with revolutionizing the art form by introducing African dance.
Beckford quickly earned the nickname the Dance Lady, and in 1947, she became the first black member of the Orchesis Modern Dance Honor Society at UC Berkeley. That year, she created the first recreational modern dance department in the country at the Oakland Department of Parks and Recreation.
She started the Ruth Beckford African Haitian Dance Company in 1953 and taught at studios in Oakland and San Francisco.
“She taught Afro-Haitian dance before it was popular,” Howard said. “She had black bodies moving across the floor at a time when ... there was so much discrimination.”
Beckford encouraged a generation of young women, often referring to them as her adopted daughters, to pursue careers in dance. Deborah Vaughan, founder of Dimensions Dance Theater in Oakland, was one of them.
Vaughan recalled that Beckford took her out on a boat while she was in college with a few other young women and asked them, “What are you going to do with your lives?”
“The other funny thing is, she would ask how would you eat because artists, even today, are not the people who make a grand sum of money,” Vaughan said with a laugh.
It was through her conversations with Beckford that Vaughan and several other women came up with the idea to start Dimensions Dance Theater.
“She was just incredibly inspirational, very disciplined,” Payton said.
“She was definitely a diva — always dressed to the nines, nails done, jewelry,” Payton added.
Beckford always had on a leotard and leggings, but often paired them with either a pink or yellow item that she knitted herself to give them a pop of color. And she always had on a set of stained-glass earrings. When she reached a certain age, she hired a seamstress, who made her clothing based on designs Beckford drew.
In addition to dance, Beckford started the Black Panther Party’s free breakfast program for children at St. Augustine Episcopal Church. She also started the oral history program at the African American Museum and Library of Oakland, sharing stories of the town’s residents who were older than 70.
Based on her wishes, there will be not be a memorial service. Sarah Ravani is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: sravani@ sfchronicle.com Twitter: @SarRavani