Sophia Delza: 
American Tai Chi Pioneer

Sophia Delza (1903-1996) was an American tai chi pioneer, 
one of the first to widely promote tai chi in America. Originally 
a professional modern dancer and choreographer in New York City, 

as a young woman, Delza gave many public performances of 

Spanish and modern dance. 

In the 1920s she earned a science degree at Hunter College 
and then entered graduate school at Columbia University. 

Eventually she moved to Paris to further study dance. 

Upon returning to New York she began working in Vaudeville, 
film, and stage productions, dancing with James Cagney 

in the Grand Street Follies of 1928.

 

In 1948 she and her husband moved to Shanghai, China for 
three years, where she taught modern dance and studied Wu Style 

Tai Chi and sword forms, with the famous tai chi master, 
Ma Yueh Liang.  

In 1954 she returned to the US and gave the first documented 

public tai chi demonstration in America at New York's Museum 
of Modern Art. 

That same year she started The Delza School of Tai Chi Chuan at Carnegie Hall. By the 1960s she was writing articles, lecturing, making television appearances, and demonstrating tai chi to 

many audiences. 

She wrote her first book on tai chi,

T'ai Chi Ch'uan: Body & Mind in Harmony,  

in 1961, which is credited with being the first English 

language book on the subject of tai chi. 

During her teaching career, Delza taught tai chi for health 
at The United Nations, The Actor's Studio, SUNY Purchase, 
and the University of Hawaii.

Sophia Delza died in Manhattan in 1996 at the age of 92.

She wrote four books on tai chi including,

The T'ai Chi Ch'uan Experience: 

Reflections and Perceptions 

on Body-Mind Harmony

and

Tai Chi Chuan an Ancient Chinese Way 


Sophia Delza was one of the first to teach tai chi in the US, 

breaking ethnic and gender barriers to bring tai chi to the 

Western world in the form of instruction, books and television.