The Passing Of An Artist's Artist

Tonight, we note the passing of master of the stage, Bob Reneau.

Reneau was a true artistic legend, known as an outstanding musician, singer, playwright and producer, artist, composer, and choreographer.

He passed away on Wednesday at the age of 92 while at a hospice in Chicago. Many of his students and Belizeans in the arts had the privilege of collaborating with him on the production and presentation of some of his outstanding renditions such as "The Holy City"; " It's a Good Day"; and " Sons of Honduras".

His early productions included drama, music, and dance and so did his later productions such as: ""Breggin Tuba", "Wedding Bells for Kettiebell" and many more. Many of his past students valued his commitment to originality and to uniqueness. Althea Sealey spoke about the importance of Being Bob:..

Althea Sealey
"I have a whole treasured moment of memories inside of me from Mr. Bob. As a matter of fact he was the man who brought out whatever you all see in me, he is the one who brought it all out."

"I started with him at the age of 8 years old and spent a good 15 years with him before he had left - migrated to the United States and I continued on with Majorie Bradley and Leonie Henry and now I continued it on with sharing it with my dance company."

"Mr. Bob was an amazing person, very brilliant, very talented. I could remember that we used to sit, sing and dance and he used to be his own musician - he plays his drums and his guitar."

"I could remember in my childhood days it used to be a whole group of us together like Karen Vernon, Majorie Lewis, Avis Lewis, Becky McFadzean, Sarita Acosta - there was so much of us. The traffic officer Elsie was one of his outstanding dancer likewise and as I said he use to teach us to sing and dance and I wanted to share that with the kids of today but it's a little bit difficult because I am not as talented as him to like really take that right through. My present company right now is still carrying on some of his work like we had a dance in our childhood days by the name of stool dance and we still do it. You all see the basket dance - we still do it and that's his."

"We have thye Mahogany dance, that's his and so it's like about 5 pieces that we keep and those are some of his masterpiece because there was so many. He choreograph every dance to every season - if it's a market day, he has choreography for that. If its crab season, he has choreography for that and so he was very talented and I am inspired by him because he wasn't a dancer but everything was inside of him. He knows what he wants when he sees it."

Bob Reneau is survived by his wife, Rose Marie and eight Children: four boys and four girls.

Channel 7