“Dance was for me… a conversation, not in words but in movement, and it must be a universal language that could cope with ideas.”“The Battle Between Carnival and Lent,” photographed in the Hills of Wayne near Lyons, New York, 1943Sybil Shearer, in Without Wings the Way Is Steep,Vol II, p 52
The Dances
Untitled solo from Shades Before Mars, 1953
Sybil choreographed all of her own solos, beginning when she lived in New York and continuing to the end of her career. None of them were photographed in performance, but hundreds of photographs and films were made later by Helen in the Northbrook studio. Sybil also choreographed her Company dances, and Helen photographed and filmed some of them in rehearsal.
Many reviews of performances appear in Sybil’s autobiography, Without Wings the Way Is Steep, Volumes I and II.
Full listings of the dances are being compiled, including photographs and films, first and later performances, specific music (many were identified only by composer), costumes and costume designers where known, and other information.
