We received news last week that Australian dancer Ruth Galene has passed away.
Born in 1929, Galene was a child when she migrated to Australia from Germany with her parents. She studied expressive dancing at the Gertud Bodenwieser school in Sydney, as well as ballet with a range of teachers. After dancing for a short time with the Borovansky Ballet, Galene was recruited to Ballet Rambert on its 1947-49 Australian tour. When the company returned to England, Galene went with it. After studying in England with Vera Volkova, Galene went on to join the Roland Petit company in Paris, and then, after studying with Victor Gsovsky, she joined the Marquis de Cuevas company.
Galene returned to Australia is the early 1950s and began dancing with National Theatre Ballet in Melbourne. During the 1960s she choreographed some dance works for Ballet Australia. She also became involved in dance education at this time, developing her own system of training called Dance Dynamics. Galene directed Red Opal Dance Theatre (originally Yongala Ballet) and the New Dance Theatre.
This information was sourced from the National Library of Australia's Australia Dancing website.