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TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A dance scholarship has been established at The University of Alabama in honor of Birmingham native and long-time Fairhope resident Gage Bush Englund. The scholarship was endowed by the American Ballet Theatre Summer Intensive program at UA to honor Englund’s instrumental role in establishing this renowned summer dance program at The University.

Primary consideration will be given to full-time undergraduate dance majors.

The UA American Ballet Summer Intensive is a three-week residential dance training program taught in partnership with the American Ballet Theatre dance company of New York. The Intensive brings to UA some 200 teen dancers who study with UA dance faculty and ABT professional dancers.

Englund serves as ballet mistress of the American Ballet Theatre’s Studio Company and is an honorary member of the dance company’s board of trustees. In 1997, she helped to establish the American Ballet Summer Intensive at the University of Alabama, the first training program for young dancers to be held by ABT at a university or outside of New York.

“Our intensive is now in its eighth year, and national demand for entry into it is fierce,” said Dr. Robert F. Olin, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. “Demand is high because the dance instruction is impeccable. At the forefront of our dance faculty is Gage Bush Englund. She has not only been the guiding force in establishing this academic partnership, but every summer she comes to Tuscaloosa for three weeks to share her immense knowledge of dance and technique.”

The Intensive is part of the department of theatre and dance in UA’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Intensive participants are selected through a 22-city nationwide audition tour. Its success inspired the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes to begin its own Summer Intensive at The University to teach its world famous precision dance techniques.

Bush’s dance career includes membership with the ABT, Joffrey Ballet, Dance Repertory Company and the Huntington Dance Ensemble. She received a Ford Foundation Scholarship to the School of American Ballet and studied with dance greats in Paris and with the Royal Danish Ballet.

The ABT has been the home of many of the world's best dancers, including Natalia Makarova, Mikhail Baryshnikov and Cynthia Gregory, since its founding in 1940. American Ballet Theatre is known internationally for establishing an American identity for ballet through the choreography of such dancers as Agnes de Mille, George Balanchine and Twyla Tharp.

The College of Arts and Sciences is Alabama’s largest liberal arts college and the University’s largest division, with 355 faculty and 6,600 students.