Artists & Elders: Darling Shear & Efé McWorter
Darling Shear is a Chicago Native but has roots in Atlanta where Darling started dance training. Darling attended North Springs Charter School of the performing arts where Darling was trained in Ballet, Modern, Jazz and African. Darling began dancing professionally right out of high school and in that time worked with many great choreographers. The highlights were working with Bubba Carr choreography/artistic director to Cher for 12yrs and counting, Rhonda Henriksen soloist with Hubbard Street and Twyla Tharp, Tracy Vogt former Philadanco dancer, Hinton Battle the Original Scarecrow from the broadway production of “The Wiz” and Lauri Stallings Hubbard street soloist and founder/artistic director of gloATL. Darling moved back to Chicago the summer of 2011 to start Suna Dance a collaborative artist group and had the first performance in November of 2011. Darling, a freelance dancer/choreographer in the city has worked with The Fly Honeys of the The Inconvenience, Body Cartography of Minneapolis, Links Hall, Victoria Bradford, Chicago AIDS Foundation, chances dances, no small plan productions, Slo’Mo, the Public hotel, Soho House Chicago, Growing Power inc., expo Chicago, Cerqua Rivera Dance Theatre, the school of the art Institute, Depaul museum, University of Chicago, University of Illinois in Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago Film Archive, Chicago Athletic Association Hotel, Salonathon, and Open TV beta. In 2018 Darling was chosen as the cover model and also quoted in Micah Salkind’s Oxford published book ‘Do you remember house? Chicago’s queer of color underground’. Followed by receiving the Between Gestures scholarship to Austria to attend Impulstanz in Vienna also the Chicago Dancemakers Forum fellowship and Links Hall CoMission Fellowship along with a 3Arts nomination in 2019. Darlings career has been one with a strong spiritual center and allowance of universal well-being.
Efé (pronounced ee-Fay) McWorter hails from the ‘worlds’ of Concert Dance, Arts in Education and Cultural Administration in Chicago where she has been affectionately named Ms. Mac and MaMaE!! Embracing the ancient traditions of yoga to, “tame the cerebral, transform the physical and energize the spiritual,” she has joyously extended her love of performance to the World of Entertainment through television, film, print, theatre and commercials. Awarded the 2019 Best Actress by the DC Black Film Festival for her work in the short film, TOGETHER, Efé describes her Hollywood Acting Career as a “Beautiful Cinderella Story.” One that is truly obtainable for anyone with latent desires to bring forth and share their talent. And in Efé’s case, this all began as she proudly traversed into her 60’s. Grandmother to two fine young men, an actor and classical violist, Efé is grateful for the opportunities Los Angeles has extended to her to continue her deep commitment to a life of JOY, enlightenment, illumination, mentorship and the beauty that lies in the telling of stories through all media outlets. She thanks her beautiful talented daughter, Mei-Ling, for opening this fascinating world to her.
Process