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{{Infobox person
| name = '''Gailene Stock''' <br> '''<small>CBE AM</small>'''
| image = Gailene Stock 1973.jpg
| caption = Stock in 1973
| imagesize =
| birth_name = Gailene Patricia Stock
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1946|1|28|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Ballarat]], [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]], [[Australia]]
| nationality = [[Australia]]n
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2014|4|29|1946|1|28|df=y}}
| death_place = [[London]], [[England]], UK
| alma_mater = [[Australian Ballet]]
| occupation = [[Ballet dancer]], Teacher, Director{{flatlist|
* [[Ballet dancer]]
| spouse = Gary Norman; 1 child}}▼
* teacher
* director}}
▲| spouse = Gary Norman; 1 child}}
| children = 1
}}
 
'''Gailene Stock''' (28 January 1946{{spaced ndash}}29 April 2014) [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire|CBE]] [[Member of the Order of Australia|AM]] (28 January 1946{{spaced ndash}}29 April 2014) <ref name="independent">{{cite news|url=https://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 years==
Gailene Patricia Stock was born in [[Ballarat]], [[Victoria (Australia)|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’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 name="brisbanetimes"/>
 
==Rise to Principal Dancer==
In 1962, at the age of 16, Stock 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, 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|National Ballet School, Victoria]], and took on other administrative positions before being 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"/>
 
==Return to London==
Gailene Stock moved to [[The Royal Ballet School]] in 1999, with her family. 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 name="independent">{{cite news|url=https://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|publisher=The Independent|location=London, UK|first=Martin|last=Childs|date=2 May 2014|accessdate=3 May 2014}}</ref>
 
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's junior and senior sections, achieving a much-praised move of the Royal Ballet School'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's accommodation in [[White Lodge]], [[Richmond Park]].<ref name="brisbanetimes">{{cite 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>
 
She served twice as the Presidentpresident of the Juryjury at the [[Prix de Lausanne]] (2003 and 200112011) and also as a Juryjury Membermember for the [[Young America Grand Prix]].
 
==Family==
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==Honours==
In 1997, she was appointed a Member of the [[Order of Australia]] (AM) for services to ballet.<ref>[httphttps://wwwhonours.itsanhonourpmc.gov.au/honours/honour_rollawards/search.cfm?aus_award_id=869921&search_type=simple&showInd=true 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 ExecutiveStock andwas Artisticmade Committeesa Commander of the [[Royal AcademyOrder of Dancethe British Empire]] (CBE). The insignia was brought to her hospital bed, Londonwhere she was being treated for cancer.
 
==Awards==
In 2013, she received the Governors of The Royal Ballet Gold Medal, and her award as [[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]] (CBE) in the [[Birthday Honours]], dated 5 June 2013, was brought to her hospital bed, where she was being treated for cancer.
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==
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{{Authority control}}
 
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stock, Gailene}}
[[Category:1946 births]]
[[Category:2014 deaths]]
[[Category:Australian ballerinas]]
[[Category:Australian expatriates in the United KingdomEngland]]
[[Category:Ballet teachers]]
[[Category:Administrators of The Royal Ballet]]
[[Category:Deaths from brain tumorcancer in England]]
[[Category:DeathsAustralian fromCommanders cancerof inthe EnglandOrder of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Members of the Order of Australia]]
[[Category:People from Ballarat]]
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