Founding Faculty Lecture Series: "Sybil Shearer - The Legendary Life of an Elusive Dancer"

Event Date: 10/10/2012
4:30 PM - 5:30 PM

Location: WB 317

Roosevelt University and the Morrison-Shearer Foundation will partner on Oct. 10 to celebrate the life of Sybil Shearer, a critically acclaimed dancer and choreographer and Roosevelt founding faculty member.

We all know the foundational moments of any institution are very critical to its long-term direction and success. Our founders set the mission, core values and belief systems that have guided Roosevelt ever since. They were a diverse and highly talented group of faculty who created academic programs of the highest quality. I am delighted that Sybil Shearer will be first founding faculty member we recognize.

Shearer was invited to join the faculty of the Central YMCA College’s School of Music in 1942 after school president Edward J. Sparling saw her perform at Chicago’s famed Goodman Theatre. She began teaching students of all ages while continuing to perform nationally as a modern dance soloist. Critics called Shearer “the most distinctly individual of all dancers,” “a dancer’s dancer” and “one of the world’s foremost dancers and choreographers.”

“Dr. Sparling, who had brought me to Chicago, supplied me with a very ample studio on top of the Kimball Building and a large group of enthusiastic beginning students,” Shearer writes in her autobiography, describing the beginnings of her close friendship with Roosevelt’s founding president. “His wife had arranged for two enormous groups of children to study dance at the Winnetka Community House. Their daughter, Mary Ann, was my pupil for quite a few years.”

In 1945, Sparling left Central YMCA College to form what soon became Roosevelt College. Shearer joined him and established Roosevelt’s dance program. She continued to teach at Roosevelt until 1951.

The event, “Sybil Shearer: The Legendary Life of an Elusive Dancer”, will be the first in Roosevelt’s Founding Faculty Lecture Series. Being held at 4:30 p.m. in room 317 of the Wabash Building, it will feature actors, historical photographs, dance films and a display of costumes, followed by a reception. The program is free and open to the public, but reservations are suggested to Melinda Aguilera at maguilera@roosevelt.edu.