Gailene stock biography channel

Born in Melbourne, Stock became a dancer despite having been struck down with severe case of polio at the age of eight — for nearly two years she lay immobilised on her back in a full-body-length metal cage.

Black ballerinas in history

Despite predictions she would not walk again, she eventually recovered, beginning with painful stretching exercises, walking on all fours and eventually standing. She was finally back in class at the age of 14, four years from when she first became ill. This recovery alone was remarkable enough. Two years later a truck full of gravel hit the car her father was driving.

Her skull was fractured and her jaw was broken, and she was in a coma for three days, but she still attended her ballet exam 14 weeks later. And received a highly commended. At age 16 she was offered a place in the Australian Ballet, but after a short time in the company she took herself off, alone, to accept a year-long scholarship to the Royal Ballet School in London.

She then returned to Australia and the Australian Ballet, where she danced for seven years as a principal dancer, and where she met her soon-to-be husband, fellow principal Gary Norman. Their daughter, Lisa, was born in She was director of the National Ballet School in Melbourne for eight years, a lecturer in classical dance at the Victorian College of the Arts, and then director of the Australian Ballet School from to , after which she was headhunted by the Royal Ballet School in London.