Best before midnights’ ceilidh caller, Gillian Whitelaw, began learning the art of Highland Dancing at the age of 4. For ten successive years Gillian dominated every age group in which she competed at Highland dancing championships, competitions and Highland games all over Scotland.

Every trophy available to Gillian during these ten years has her name emblazoned on it many times.

Due to family circumstances, Gillian was unable to compete for three years and was quickly forgotten by the Highland Dancing World, until at the age of 16, she made a spectacular return at The Edinburgh City championships, closely missing out on the championship.

With the change in circumstances Gillian could again compete regularly, and went on to win the Senior Scottish Highland Dancing championship three times in four years. A feat never before accomplished.

Gillian began teaching Highland Dancing herself at seventeen, and her success as a teacher is almost without equal. Her classes produced many many champions over the years, including Senior Scottish and Senior British Highland Dancing champions.

Visiting festivals as a dancer, sparked an interest in Gillian in the much wider culture of folk dancing and music

Gillian formed her own dance group, the Ballochleam Highland Dancers, studied at Queen Margaret University, began to delve into the history of Scottish dancing, and started to choreograph dances of her own, using traditional steps. Gillian was to quickly marry up the dances with the contemporary, and traditional Celtic music that was beginning to interest her so much at the festivals, and The Ballochleam Highland Dancers began to be noticed. www.ballochleamdancers.com

In the ensuing years, the Ballochleam dancers, have appeared in Germany, Ireland, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Wales, England, at The Lorient Interceltique festival, appearing no less than 15 times, between 1989 and 2004. The dancers appeared in front of 20,000 strong crowds, and performed on stage with such Celtic Giants as Capercaillie, and Alan Stivell.

Two trips to Taiwan, one to a festival and one professionally followed. The group attended the World Folk dancing competition in Majorca on three occasions and Gillian guided them to a third and then a second place at that event. Ballochleam have appeared countless times in Spain, Galicia and Astouria and in 2007 performed for three weeks at Worldfest, Silver Dollar City, Missouri.USA.

The ultimate highlight of the Ballochleam Dancers history was to be in October 2008, when the dance group appeared at the home of rock star Sting, at a ceilidh to celebrate his 57th birthday. The dancers performed, and then assisted the star studded guests in learning the ceilidh dances as these were called.

During the many trips abroad, requests for dance workshops regularly occurred, and Gillian found that teaching Scottish ceilidh dancing, was more successful, than attempting to have untrained dancers learn the Highland Dances, which require a fair amount of skill and fitness, or injury can easily occur. Over the years Gillian perfected her skill at teaching the ceilidh dances [calling] during the many workshops, Often this had to be done through an interpreter, and so Gillian developed an easy way of explaining the dances, for complete beginners and enthusiasts alike.

With several years experience working with the ceilidh bands, “Calum Lowe Sound” and “ShoeString” calling at weddings and events all over Scotland including Hogmanay at Cameron House Hotel Loch Lomond, Edinburgh and Stirling Castles etc. Gillian was the obvious choice as ceilidh caller for Best before Midnight.

With her pedigree as an extraordinary dancer, teacher, choreographer and caller, your guests can be in no safer hands than with Gillian calling for the ceilidh dances.