In 2010, she received the Royal Academy of Dance's prestigious Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award in recognition of her outstanding services to ballet.

[3] She was severely ill as a child and was bored with the enforced regimen of rest imposed on her, but her parents noticed her love of movement and sent her to eurhythmics classes.

Interestingly for Cameron's future teaching career, among the books she borrowed was the Russian prima ballerina Tamara Karsavina's Theatre Street.

Among them were the Czech ballet dancer, choreographer and director, Edouard Borovansky, and his wife, Russian-born Xenia Nikolaeva Krüger, née Smirnova.

But she further observes that as few journalists were employed by newspapers to write about ballet, and the charity events were "usually covered from a social angle, focussing on fashion and status, the artistic ability of the performers was rather inconsequential" and the dancers were rarely acknowledged for their unpaid appearances or their talent.

[11] With increasing public acclaim and the growing maturity of his leading students, Borovansky established the Australian Ballet Company, whose first staging was a successful two-night season at the Comedy Theatre in Melbourne in December 1940.

Kirsova was a Danish prima ballerina with a background in the Ballets Russes de Monte-Carlo, and a close working relationship with the choreographer Michel Fokine.

[4] Young Australian dancers Strelsa Heckelman, Helene ffrance, Henry Legerton and Paul Hammond (who at the time was calling himself Paul Clementin), and a New Zealander Peggy Sager, were all Kirsova's protégés and along with former Ballets Russes dancers Tamara Tchinarova, Raissa Koussnetsova, Valentin Zeglovsky and Edouard Sobichevsky they were destined by the end of the year to form the nucleus of the first professional ballet company in Australia.

Les Sylphides and Faust, with Cameron featured again, appeared once more when the Kirsova Ballet moved to Melbourne for a season at His Majesty's Theatre on 31 January 1942.

[22] Cameron's "sensitivity and musicality" in Faust "staggered critics and proved false immediately the popular theory that the Australian temperament is not capable of dramatic depths".

[23] Cameron was now one of Kirsova's leading dancers,[17] making her debut as a principal ballerina in February 1943,[24] and she was to stay with the company until October 1945, performing seasons in Sydney and tours to Melbourne, Adelaide and Brisbane.

The company's ever–widening repertoire over the years included several original Kirsova works, such as Revolution of the Umbrellas, Harlequin, and Jeunesse together with a choice of the classics, like Swan Lake, Les Sylphides and Aurora's Wedding.

She reports that Cameron recalled of Kirsova: "She was a woman who tried to mould her company in the Diaghilev tradition where music, the scenery, the dancers became part of one whole, and there it was I think that the true beginnings of Australian ballet lie.

To make ends meet, Cameron had to work as a shop assistant in a Sydney book store,[4] the Craftsman Bookshop,[2] but she continued to take classes.

She attended evening sessions run by Valya Kouznetsova, a dancer of the Moscow school, who had also stayed in Australia after one of the Ballets Russes tours.

"[4] The repertoire of original works, choreographed by Perrottet and Thadée Slavinsky, included Arckaringa, one of the first ballets with a story derived from Aboriginal legend.

February 1947 found them performing in a theatrical revue, a vehicle for the diminutive British comedian Wee Georgie Wood, called Hi-Ho Piccadilly.

"Rachel Cameron," enthused the dance critic of The Age, "displayed thrilling technique in Perpetuum … and set a welcome standard in the divertissements, which included the charming Gigue.

"[34] Also in September 1947, Cameron was among a number of leading Australian dancers invited to supplement the British dance company Ballet Rambert on their Australasian tour from 1947 to 1949.

[4][5] Cameron and her husband, Keith Parker, left Wellington, New Zealand on the Shaw, Savill & Albion Line steamship Arawa, in August 1948, sailing via Cape Town and Tenerife for Liverpool, where they arrived on 29 September.

In 1948, however, Cameron, in common with the many Australian dancers who emigrated to Britain in the years after the Second World War, found a grim postwar environment and limited opportunities to perform.

[50] Cameron stated that one of the most exciting periods of her life came when she was asked to demonstrate for two great teachers and former ballerinas, Lydia Sokolova and Tamara Karsavina.

Her work with first Lydia Sokolova and then Tamara Karsavina marked the beginnings of her move into the teaching phase of her career, which was to continue with increasing acclaim until nearly the end of her life.

[4] Lester was a British dancer and choreographer who had been schooled in the Diaghilev tradition, had trained with Anton Dolin, Serafina Astafieva, Nikolai Legat and Fokine and had partnered Tamara Karsavina on her European tours for three years in the late 1920s, remaining as a close collaborator with her thereafter.

[55][56] She had reached the peak of her true calling, training the ballet teachers of the future in the second and third years of their studies,[56] and she retained and enjoyed this crowning achievement for over a quarter of a century.

[56] In a climax to her career, in 2010, barely six months before her death, Cameron was presented with the prestigious Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Award in recognition of outstanding services to ballet.

It was established in 1953 and previous recipients had included Ninette de Valois, Tamara Karsavina, Marie Rambert, Frederick Ashton and Rudolph Nureyev.

[61] On 10 December 1946 in Melbourne, Cameron married Keith Frederick Parker,[62] a recently discharged Royal Australian Air Force warrant officer.

[2] They were always generous in their hospitality to friends seeking shelter or a place to work, and Cameron continued to be visited regularly by former pupils, students and colleagues.

This is awarded annually to a Faculty of Education student studying at level 5 or 6 who has demonstrated exemplary attendance, the most progress in understanding the qualities, style, musicality and historical aspects of the Karsavina Syllabus, and displayed a positive attitude and consistent interest.