Darling Shear is a mover and shaker—literally. The Chicago-born choreographer produces movement-oriented pieces that are closely tied to healing from trauma. Trained in ballet, modern, jazz, and African dance, Shear ties in styles of burlesque and contemporary movement that includes intense emotion, bare feet, and crossing the barrier between audience and dancer. In the piece Querida, first performed at Links Hall in November 2018, the artist opens up about personal experiences and how movement can regenerate, soften, and disrupt our ways of navigating the past. On December 17, Shear will present excerpts from the piece—which has changed immensely since first performed—at the Museum of Contemporary Art as part of the “In Progress” series.

Do you consider yourself a dancer/choreographer, or is “performer” a better word?

That’s always a weighed down question. The community is lovely. I think the thing is that because of funds it puts people into cliques a little bit. These tiers of dancers only hang out together . . . There is also a lovely close contaminating happening here and there.

Do you think of the club and nightlife as your practice space?

[Querida] is about healing through sexual trauma and emotional traumas and the vices we used to fill them in. People who look like me are sexualized from a very, very, very early age. How can we have a conversation with these traumas? We live in societies that have been built upon puritan views so then we can’t have conversations about sex and gender and sexuality. This is how I deal with it.

There’s a book that just came out that’s called Do You Remember House? by Micah Salkind, and it’s about Chicago’s queer underground and the culture. A big part of that is that it’s church. It’s a safe space to release and explore and become new. That’s club culture for queer culture. It’s a simple space, but it is a safe space. I love my nightlife and working the nightlife. I have the freedom. But I do need space. How can I still incorporate that? I grew up in the club. I’ve been in the club since I was three. Scootchin’ the good scootch.

Tue 12/17, 6 PM, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, 220 E. Chicago, mcachicago.org, free.