Gailene Stock

Gailene Stock CBE AM (28 January 194629 April 2014) was an Australian-born ballerina, teacher and Director of the Royal Ballet School in Covent Garden.

Early years Gailene Patricia Stock was born in Ballarat, Victoria. She was the second of three daughters to Roy and Sylvia. She began dancing from the age of three. However, she contracted polio at the age of 8, which left her hospital in an iron frame for 18 months. Remarkably, she was back dancing again by the time she was 12, attending the school of Paul Hammond, formerly a leading soloist with the Borovansky Ballet.

Two years later, however, she had another setback when she suffered serious injury - a fractured skull and jaw - following a collision between a cement lorry and her father's car; she was left in a coma for three days. She had been due to take her Royal Academy of Dance exam. Incredibly, she recovered and passed her exam with "commendation".

She served twice as the president of the jury at the Prix de Lausanne (2003 and 2011) and also as a jury member for the Young America Grand Prix.

Family Gailene married fellow Australian and principal dancer Gary Norman while they were touring North America in 1977. Their daughter Lisa was born in 1978. In the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 5 June 2013 Stock was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). The insignia was brought to her hospital bed, where she was being treated for cancer.

Awards In 1998, Stock became the first Australian representative on the Executive and Artistic Committees of the Royal Academy of Dance, London. In 2013, she received the Governors of The Royal Ballet Gold Medal.

Health and death In 2013 Stock was diagnosed with a brain tumour and took leave from The Royal Ballet to receive treatment. She died a year later on 29 April 2014, aged 68.

McAllister added, "Her success continued after leaving the stage, as a teacher of note and an innovative ballet school director, notably at both the Australian Ballet School and more recently the Royal Ballet School. Her legacy lives on in the thousands of dancers whose careers she touched and nurtured during these prestigious positions."