Christina Gallea (1939 – ). Australian dancer, director and writer

Christina Gallea was born in Sydney, Australia. She studied at the Frances Scully School of Dancing. At the age of 16 she joined the Australian Ballet Theatre, a new company directed by Walter Gore, but this lasted only a year. She then travelled to London to study under Audrey de Vos, Anna Northcote and Stanislas Idzikowski, and danced in Frankfurt (again under Walter Gore), and Amsterdam where she took on increasingly important roles. Moving to Paris for further study, Gallea was invited to join American Festival Ballet, where she met her future husband, Alexander Roy. Engagements in Rome, Marseille, Amsterdam and London followed, with Gallea dancing leading roles in both classical and modern works.

In 1963, Gallea and Roy devised a programme called Soirée de Ballet, which comprised classical pas de deux, together with Roy’s first choreographic pieces, and which toured extensively in Europe. The couple then formed the International Ballet Caravan, which became the Alexander Roy London Ballet Theatre in 1974. Gallea danced innumerable roles for the company, which continued until 2000, when both she and Roy retired. Thereafter, Gallea became a regular contributor to the Dancing Times magazine.