Birmingham Civic Ballet

The Birmingham Civic Ballet was an association of the Birmingham Ballet Company, the Birmingham Civic Ballet School, and the Birmingham Civic Ballet Guild, along with its apprentice program and a ballet association of supporters.

At its founding in the early 1960s, the company was directed by Richard Englund, with his wife, Birmingham native Gage Bush Englund, as principal dancer.

The Birmingham Ballet Company was a professional performing group which maintained 12 ballets in its continuing repertory. The roster consisted of 8 principal dancers with 8-12 soloists and a corps of 16-20. New dancers graduated into the company from the apprentice program as vacancies became available. The company produced 24-30 performances annually in Birmingham, around the state, and in the southeast. It actively collaborated with the Birmingham Civic Opera, Birmingham Festival of Arts, Birmingham Children's Theatre, and in Birmingham Symphony Orchestra programs.

The Civic Ballet School maintained a faculty of 5 professional instructors for the training of dancers from as young as 4 years to professional apprenticeship.

The Birmingham Civic Ballet Guild was formed in 1959 as a junior social group, primarily made up of former debutantes at the Ball of Roses, which it sponsors.

In 1981 the Civic Ballet merged with Ballet Alabama and the University of Alabama at Birmingham Ballet to form the Alabama Ballet.

References

• "Ballet: Art & Hard Work." (March 1966) Birmingham Magazine. Vol. 5, No. 3, p. 15
• Cather, Patrick (1991) "The Birmingham Art Association in 1969: Changing of the Guard" Birmingham: Cather & Brown Books