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". Rise to Principal Dancer In 1962, at the age of 16, Stock was awarded a Royal Academy of Dance scholarship to London's Royal Ballet School, but at the same time, Dame Peggy van Praagh had just founded The Australian Ballet and she decided to offer Gailene a job and so she deferred her London jaunt to the following year. After a year in London, she was offered a position with The Royal Ballet. She decided, however, to return to The Australian Ballet, where she spent 7 years, rising to principal dancer under director Robert Helpmann. When The Australian Ballet embarked on its first European tour in 1965, Stock was part of the company, and toured on subsequent tours, including one to the United States, during which many dancers sustained injuries. On that tour, Stock recalled, she did 69 performances in 69 days. She later went on to dance for three years in Canada as principal ballerina with the National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Winnipeg Ballet. She was pursued to North America by an Australian colleague, Gary Norman, whom she married. The pair returned to Australian Ballet and resumed their dancing careers. After having their daughter in 1978 she moved into teaching and management. Stock then was named director of the National Ballet School, Victoria, and took on other administrative positions before being made director of the Australian Ballet School from 1990-98. In 1999 she was head-hunted to take