Happy 85th Birthday, Harvest Moon Ball Champion Sugar Sullivan!

By Joe Mabel, CC BY-SA 3.0

We wish a very happy 85th birthday to the legendary dancer and performer Sugar Sullivan! Born in Harlem on April 20, 1930, dance was a part of Sugar’s life from an early age. Initially training in ballet and tap, she gravitated toward lindy hop in her teens. A standout competitor at the Harvest Moon Ball lindy hop competition, she and her husband George Sullivan won the legendary contest in 1955. Sugar was also a featured dancer in the seminal documentary on Black vernacular dance The Spirit Moves by Mura Dehn, and appeared on the Ed Sullivan show.

In the 1960s and 70s, Sugar continued to dance and perform as part of the dance troupe Sonny Allen and the Rockets, one of the few groups to keep the lindy hop flame alive in this period. From the mid-1980s onward, Sugar has continued as as tradition-bearer for lindy hop at numerous dance camps, festivals and workshops around the world. We’re so blessed to have her with us.

Check out this 2016 performance by Sugar Sullivan, Barbara Billups, and LaTasha Barnes, to the music of Barbara Morrison.

And here’s an interview with Sugar at the 2020 ILHC.