Gailene Stock: Difference between revisions

| name = '''Gailene Stock''' <br> '''<small>CBE AM</small>'''

| image = Gailene Stock 1973.jpg

| birth_place = [[Ballarat]], [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]], [[Australia]]

| death_place = [[London]], [[England]], UK

| occupation = [[Ballet dancer]], Teacher, Director{{flatlist|

'''Gailene Stock''' [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire|CBE]] [[Member of the Order of Australia|AM]] (28 January 1946{{spaced ndash}}29 April 2014), [[Order of the British Empire|CBE]],<ref name="independent">{{cite news|url=httphttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/gailene-stock-dancer-and-teacher-who-became-a-successful-if-controversial-director-of-the-royal-ballet-school-9318480.html|title=Dancer and teacher who became a successful, if controversial, Director of the Royal Ballet School|publisherwork=The Independent|location=London, UK|first=Martin|last=Childs|date=2 May 2014|accessdate=3 May 2014}}</ref> was an Australian-born ballerina, teacher and Director of the [[Royal Ballet School]] in [[Covent Garden]].

==Early Yearsyears==

Gailene Patricia Stock was born in [[Ballarat]], [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]], south-eastern Australia. 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’sfather'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]]".<ref {{cn}}name="brisbanetimes"/>

In 1962, at the age of 16, GaileneStock was awarded a Royal Academy of Dance scholarship to London’sLondon'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]].<ref name="independent"/>

When The Australian Ballet embarked on its first European tour in 1965, GaileneStock 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, GaileneStock recalled, she did 69 performances in 69 days.

GaileneShe 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|National Ballet School, Victoria]], and took on other administrative positions before bebeing made director of the Australian Ballet School from 1990-98 to 1998. In 1999 she was head-hunted to take over from Dame [[Merle Park]] as Director of the Royal Ballet School. She accepted the post with the proviso that her husband taught the boys at the school.<ref name="independent"/>

Gailene Stock moved to [[The Royal Ballet School]] in 1999, with her family, after she had been headhunted. She immediately set to work changing the curriculum in order to make the student dancers more employment-ready upon graduation. When she joined, employment rates were around 48% and steadily rose to over 98% during her tenure.<ref {{cn}}name="independent"/>

She opened the doors to students from all over the world, which angered many of the establishment within the English ballet.<ref name="brisbanetimes"/> Over her 15 years, she oversaw the splendid refurbishments of the school’sschool's junior and senior sections, achieving a much-praised move of the Royal Ballet School’sSchool's senior section from dowdy [[Chiswick]] premises to an award-winning conversion next to the [[Royal Opera House]] in Covent Garden, and upgrading the younger section’ssection's accommodation in [[White Lodge]], [[Richmond Park]].<ref name="brisbanetimes">{{cncite news|url=http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/comment/obituaries/gailene-stock-resilient-dancer-overcame-injuries-illhealth-and-insults-all-the-way-to-the-top-20140501-zr2e2.html|title=Resilient dancer overcame injuries, ill-health and insults, all the way to the top|newspaper=The Brisbane Times|location=Brisbane, Australia|date= 1 May 2014|accessdate=1 May 2014}}</ref>

Gailene married fellow Australian and principal dancer Gary Norman while they were touring northNorth America in 1977. Their daughter Lisa was born in 1978.<ref name="independent"/>

In 1997, she was awardedappointed a Member of the [[Order of Australia]] (AM) for services to ballet.<ref>[https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/869921 It's an Honour]. Retrieved 4 May 2014</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.royalballetschool.org.uk/2014/04/gailene-stock-1946-2014|title=Gailene Stock CBE AM 1946-2014|publisher=Royal Ballet School|date=29 April 2014|accessdate=3 May 2014}}</ref> andIn inthe 1998Queen's becameBirthday theHonours firstList Australianof representative5 onJune the2013 Stock Executivewas andmade Artistica CommitteesCommander of the [[Royal AcademyOrder of Dancethe British Empire]], London(CBE). The insignia was brought to her hospital bed, where she was being treated for cancer.

==Health and death==

In 2013 GaileneStock 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.<ref name="independent"/>

Upon hearing of her death, [[David McAllister (dancer)|David McAllister]], artistic director of the Australian Ballet, paid tribute to Gailene Stockher. “She"She was a passionate, intelligent and dynamic dancer whose career saw her dance across the globe. Rising from one of the youngest dancers in the company to the rank of ballerina, she danced in all the major classical repertoire (and was) a part of the many important new creations during her time with the company."<ref name="theaustralian">{{cite news|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/arts/stage/gailene-stock-dancer-with-a-mission/story-fn9d344c-1226901241187#|title=Gailene Stock: dancer with a mission|publisher=The Australian|location=Australia|date=1 May 2014|accessdate=3 May 2014}}</ref>

*[httphttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/gailene-stock-dancer-and-teacher-who-became-a-successful-if-controversial-director-of-the-royal-ballet-school-9318480.html Obituary] [[The Independent]], 2 May 2014.

*[https://web.archive.org/web/20140503193434/http://www.ballet.co.uk/magazines/yr_09/mar09/interview_gailene%20_stock_and_students.htm Gailene Stock and Students] Interview at The Ballet Association, March 2009.

[[Category:Australian expatriates in the United KingdomEngland]]

[[Category:Deaths from brain tumorcancer in England]]

[[Category:CancerAustralian deathsCommanders inof Englandthe Order of the British Empire]]

[[Category:CommandersMembers of the Order of the British EmpireAustralia]]