Sybil Shearer, (1912-2005).

Modern dance iconoclast Sybil Shearer died of a stroke last November in Evanston, Illinois. Agnes de Mille wrote of the young Sybil, "She had a point of view, passion, and talent, although how enormous this was I had no idea at the time."

If Shearer danced her faith, as she did in Let the Heavens Open That the Earth May Shine, her hands seemed to gather in the air. When she danced In the Cool of the Garden, there was ecstasy in her tread. In a Vacuum revealed mordant humor as she portrayed a worker becoming her machine.

After spending a summer at the Bennington School of the Dance in the '30s, Shearer cast her lot with Doris Humphrey. By 1941 she had become a recital soloist whose magic was in the worlds she evoked. By 1943 she left New York and settled in Chicago. There, she met Helen Balfour Morrison, with whom she formed the Morrison-Shearer Foundation and Museum, an artists' sanctuary. Shearer also formed a small company. One of her students was John Neumeier, now director of the Hamburg Ballet. She later devoted herself to writing.

The day after her death, the mail brought an announcement of the first volume of her autobiography, to be published this year. The enclosed portrait, like its subject and like her dancing, was both alert and at peace. For the memorial tribute in February, call 847.291.1867--Doris Hering

New Zealand designer Kristian Fredrikson died late last year at age 65. Fredrikson's 40-year career included collaborations with Sydney Dance Company artistic director Graeme Murphy and with Houston Ballet director Stanton Welch. His costume design for Welch's new Swan Lake can be seen this March. (See "A Flock of New Swan Lakes," p. 50.)

For more than 1,000 performances--including its first--Katharine Sergava performed in Agnes de Mille's Oklahoma! In the 1943 groundbreaking musical, she danced Dream Laurey in the musical's ballet. Last November Sergava died at the age of 95 or 96, having survived (and escaped) the Russian Revolution, a career on Broadway and in film, and a prematurely published obituary filed in 2003 by The New York Times. For more than 30 years the five-foot tall fireball taught drama at HB Studios in New York.

Rosalind Pierson, a former dancer with the Charles Weidman Company and an associate professor at Ohio State University since 1975, died last October. She was 64.

Sixty-two-year-old dancer and teacher Rene Godin died of cancer in Hallandale, Florida last October. In the 2005 movie In Her Shoes, Godin appeared as a tea dancer. Known for being a smooth talker, he was remembered by Debbie Tretola as a teacher who "had the women eating out of his hand."