Portrait taken at the Waterfall Glen Forest, Du Page County
Darling Shear
Performer, DJ, Choreographer, Dancer
Darling 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. 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 and 2022.
In 2020 Darling was acknowledged as 1 of 8 Trans/GNC dancers to follow, Darling also became a cohort to Hubbard Street Dance as part of an artist exchange with 10 artists from around the city and 10 company members. Darling's mission has been one with a strong spiritual center and allowance of universal well-being.