Ula Sharon

Ula Sharon Robinson Bergfeldt (March 17, 1905 – January 19, 1993) was an American dancer who performed professionally as Ula Sharon on the Broadway and London stages before becoming a dance educator and arts organization founder in Kansas City, Missouri. Born in Spring Hill, Kansas, she was the daughter of John Mason Robinson, a civil engineer, and Lilleth Sharon Robinson. At age eleven, she traveled to Australia with her parents to perform as a vaudeville entertainer.

Sharon's New York debut came in May 1920, when she appeared in a ballet recital at Aeolian Hall. Critical reception was mixed: one reviewer noted a lack of grace but acknowledged her agility on pointe, while another characterized her as a genuine dancer rather than an amateur. Because of her young age at the time, a legal guardian was appointed to enable her to enter into professional contracts.

Her Broadway career spanned from 1920 to 1928 and included several notable productions. She appeared in the revue Broadway Brevities of 1920, followed by The Greenwich Village Follies in 1922 and 1923. She also performed in the Music Box Revue of 1922–23, Song of the Flame, and She's My Baby. Fellow dancer Ruth Page offered a vivid account of Sharon's technical endurance on pointe, describing how she would sustain a hop on one toe for what seemed an extraordinary length of time. Sharon also worked on the London stage, appearing in productions of Sunny in 1926 and Rudolf Friml's The Three Musketeers in 1930.

Beyond the stage, Sharon maintained a public profile during the early 1920s. In 1921 she appeared on the cover of The Tatler, drove a battery-powered vehicle promoted as the smallest automobile, and lent her name to print advertisements for Phosferine, a product marketed as a nerve tonic.

In her personal life, Sharon married her dancing partner Carl Randall in 1924; the couple divorced in 1928. She subsequently married businessman William Harold Bergfeldt, known as Perky, with whom she had a son named William. Her second husband died in 1971, and Sharon died on January 19, 1993, in Kansas City, Missouri, at the age of 87.

Later in life, Sharon operated her own dance studio in Kansas City and taught classes there. In 1954 she co-founded the Kansas City Dance Theater, serving as its first artistic director. She was also a co-founder of the Vedanta Society of Kansas City. She and her husband were followers of Swami Satprakashananda, head of the Vedanta Society of St. Louis, and hosted Vedanta Society gatherings in their home. A collection of her papers is held at the State Historical Society of Missouri.