Recordpub.com - From Roosevelt to Broadway: Talented Kent man making musical mark

By Melissa Dilley

Special to the Record-Courier

Seth Stewart once took the stage with the Theodore Roosevelt High School choir, but since his graduation in 2004, he’s moved on to much bigger and better stages — such as Madonna’s and Broadway.

Stewart, who began dancing at James Dance Center in Howland, Ohio, when he was 7 years old and sang with the Kent choirs all through grade school, is currently starring in the Broadway musical “In the Heights” as Graffiti Pete.

Before the show opened on Broadway in March 2008, Stewart performed in the off-Broadway version in addition to having roles in music videos for Jay-Z, Black Eyed Peas and Mariah Carey and in movies such as “Sex and the City.”

After Roosevelt, Stewart studied at Fordham University under dancing great Alvin Ailey, but dropped out after three semesters becasue he said he just couldn’t wait to get his career started.

“I was just trying to get money to eat, but it was amazing,” he said. “I was exactly where I needed to be.”

He lived on friends’ couches for eight months going from audition to audition until he landed his first major gig dancing for Madonna’s ReInvention tour. Stewart beat out 500 other dancers in New York for the spot.

Donna Crews, the music teacher at Roosevelt, said she knew as far back as Stewart’s seventh grade year at Davey Middle School that he could be a professional dancer.

As a sophomore, Stewart made Crews’ dreams for the schools annual Pops concert come true when he taught and performed Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” for the show.

“I told him, ‘If anyone can pull it off it would be you,’ and he was only a sophomore,” she said. “Not only can he do it himself, but he can teach and inspire others. He could have showboated, but he gave everyone a chance.”

Stewart is now doing the same with his dance studio in Hoboken, N.J. It has a “green screen” for adding effects behind dancers for music videos and it has traditional practice studios.

Since he doesn’t visit often, Stewart invites his mom, Diane Stewart, to events. She has been to the off-Broadway preview, Broadway opening night, and the 2008 Tony awards.

Diane Stewart said she saves playbills, tickets and pictures just like she did when he was in school and dance productions, as if he were a typical child; however, Seth has been anything but.

“The doctor told me that since he had so much energy to get him involved in everything I could,” she said. “So I went back and told him, ‘It works, I’m exhausted!’”

His busy lifestyle hasn’t slowed down a bit since he was a kid. He tries to dance in music videos whenever possible and his next adventure is acting.

However, while Seth doesn’t plan on performing on Broadway the rest of his life, he said he will never give up his love for performing in front of 80,000 people like the day he performed in Dublin with Madonna, because he knows he has found his true calling.

“Half the reason I’ve gotten so far is because I believe I’m supposed to be there and I’ve always felt it,” he said.

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Contact Melissa Dilley at mdilley@recordpub.com or 330.298.1128