1914 – Pauline Bush opens the Pauline Bush School of Dancing in Nottingham, the forerunner of the Bush Davies School

The Bush Davies School of Theatre Arts became one of Britain’s most renowned performing arts schools. Opened in Nottingham by Pauline Bush, the school moved to premises in East Grinstead in 1945. By this time, Bush’s daughter Noreen ran the school alongside her husband, tap dancer Victor Leopold. Noreen Bush had been a pupil of Edouard Espinosa, danced in various London shows, worked as Serafina Astafieva’s assistant at one time and was awarded a Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Dancing. The school staged annual summer shows in its Adeline Genée Theatre, opened in 1967, and underwent several transformations until its closure in 1989.