Delia Weddington Stewart TX Obit
Feb. 19, 2004, 7:48PM
Innovative dancer, teacher Delia Stewart dies at 67
By MOLLY GLENTZER
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
Delia Weddington Stewart, the Southern dynamo who founded Houston's first professional jazz dance company and school, died Tuesday of pancreatic cancer. She was 67.
An internationally known teacher, Stewart helped launch many careers and inspired nonperformers with her "dance is life" philosophy.
"Delia taught me how to live and breathe dance from my heart, not just my feet. She motivated all of those around her," said Michelle Smith, a former Delia Stewart Dance Company principal who later founded the Houston Metropolitan Dance Company.
A native of Meridian, Miss., Stewart landed her first job at age 14 in the ballet corps at Radio City Music Hall. At 16, she was in the Broadway hit Pal Joey, eventually becoming the musical's featured dancer. A contemporary of Bob Fosse, she left New York at 21 to earn bachelor's and master's degrees in theater. She then founded the Mississippi Coast Ballet, a major regional troupe based in Gulfport from 1965 to 1980. She brought Mikhail Baryshnikov and Peter Martins, as well as Houston Ballet, there for performances.
Stewart dreamed of building a major jazz dance company. After moving to Houston in 1980, she gathered a fan base of young professionals. Within five years, the Delia Stewart Dance Company's flashy, fun shows sold out the Tower Theatre several times a year. Stewart -- usually wrapped in a feather boa and sequins -- opened each show with a tap-dancing monologue that ended with, "We love you, Houston!"
Stewart encouraged her dancers to choreograph and commissioned works from international stars, including Pattie Obey and Rick Odums. Dance Magazine noticed the company's "superb female dancers, showmanship, quirky imagination and sense of humor." In a 1985 review, Houston Chronicle critic Everett Evans noted, "The ... company just keeps getting sleeker, sharper and snazzier."
Stewart taught at the world's best jazz-dance schools, including Chicago's Gus Giordano School and Hubbard Street Dance Center, Amsterdam's European School of Jazz Dance and the London School of Contemporary Dance. She also helped build the dance program at Houston's Kinkaid School.
She returned to New York in 1997 and began a second career in real estate. She also was pursuing a master's degree in education, and had worked since 2002 as a teaching fellow at one of Manhattan's poorest primary schools.
Diagnosed with cancer last October, Stewart spent her final days in Mississippi. She is survived by her daughter, Julie Stewart; her sister and brother-in-law, Clare and Joe Hans; and many nieces and nephews.
"My mother was my very best friend," Julie Stewart said. "I watched her bring a community of all different backgrounds together through her love of dance and life. Some even got married. People felt special around her because in her eyes, they were."
Stewart was preceded in death by her husband, Bennie, and her son, Jimmy.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in Stewart's honor to the Houston Metropolitan Dance Company, P.O. Box 980457, Houston, TX 77098.