Dancer Sybil Shearer has died of a stroke in Evanston, Ill., at the age of 93. The unpredictable modern dancer died Thursday, The New York Times reported Wednesday. The Toronto native attracted considerable attention at her first New York concert in 1941, but less than two years later she fled to the Chicago suburbs citing the rat race of New York, the Times said. She performed in the Chicago area and only made sporadic returns to New York. Shearer wore no stage makeup and reddish-brown hair flowed loose during performances. She was known for refusing curtain calls and sometimes presented long programs without intermissions. “Sybil Shearer is a perfectionist who likes to believe that perfection is humanly attainable,” dance historian Margaret Lloyd wrote in “The Borzoi Book of Modern Dance.” Shearer worked as a dance critic for Ballet Review in recent years. The first volume of her autobiography is scheduled for publication next year. © Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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