Gailene Stock CBE AM (28 January 1946 – 29 April 2014) [1] was an Australian-born ballerina, teacher and Director of the Royal Ballet School in Covent Garden.

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.

[2] 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.

She decided, however, to return to The Australian Ballet, where she spent 7 years, rising to principal dancer under director Robert Helpmann.

She immediately set to work changing the curriculum in order to make the student dancers more employment-ready upon graduation.

Gailene married fellow Australian and principal dancer Gary Norman while they were touring North America in 1977.

[3][4] In the Queen's Birthday Honours List of 5 June 2013 Stock was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).