Highland Dance Class

Medal Tests in Highland/National Dancing 
The Ohio Scottish Arts School is pleased to be able to offer BATD Highland and National Medal Tests and Grade Examinations. These tests will be given the morning of Sunday, June 29, 2025. The 2025 Medal Test Form will be available in the Spring of 2025.  Medal Test Forms must be received by June 20, 2025.  Medal Test fees are non-refundable.

Highland Teacher Training 
Teacher training in Highland will be offered every afternoon during OSAS for those interested in preparing for Professional exams. This class requires an additional fee. Please see the Registration page. 

Linda Armstrong started taking dancing lessons in Southern California at the age of 7. Her Dad was a piper and in a local band, so summers were dedicated to going to local games. When her 3 younger brothers were old enough, they started participating in piping and drumming so it became a family affair.
Linda started teaching in her teens. She started working part time at an Insurance Broker while going to college and eventually worked full-time there until she retired at age 52. The combination of a full-time career, raising a family and teaching Highland Dance was a busy time but very rewarding. If you love what you do…you find the time to do it.
Linda has been a very successful teacher with her dancers winning U.S., Canadian and World Titles. She has taught many workshops and mentored other teachers and dancers. She was recently inducted in to the ScotDance USA Hall of Fame this past summer in Boston.
She is very honored and excited to be returning to OSAS as an instructor this summer.

Born in Glasgow, Scotland, Eleanor Belton started dancing at the age of 5. She has studied many different disciplines such as Highland, Ballet, Tap and Jazz. In 1979, Eleanor immigrated to Ontario, Canada with her husband Michael.
Eleanor has actively been teaching highland dance for over 40 years and in 1995 became the owner and Artistic Director of Aspects of Dance in Burlington, Ontario. Aspects of Dance offers students the opportunity to train in Highland, Ballet, Tap, Jazz, Lyrical, Musical Theatre and Acrobatics. Many of her competitive highland dancers have travelled throughout Canada, the United States, Australia, Europe and Scotland winning many awards and Championships. Some of her students have gone onto professional careers with professional ballet companies and cruise lines.
Eleanor is a member of the World-Wide Judges Panel for the Royal Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing. She is also a Fellow, Life Member and Examiner with the British Association Teachers of Dance. Eleanor has travelled throughout Canada, United States, Australia and Scotland, adjudicating and conducting highland and choreography Workshops.
One of her most enjoyable experiences as a highland teacher was as co-chair of the opening ceremonies for ScotDance Canada Championship Series in 2015 and 2017. She had the privilege of working with many talented dancers from across Ontario to create the choreography for these events.

Daniel Carr began dancing at the age of three with the Sheila Milne School of Dance in Owen Sound, Ontario. He received world class training in highland dance from Mrs. Milne as well as ballet, modern, jazz, tap and musical theatre from top instructors that came from all over the world. Some highlights of his highland dance career included winning major championships throughout Canada, US and Scotland including the Ontario, Canadian and World championships. Daniel teaches highland along with Leslie MacDougall in Cambridge, ON. Prior to the pandemic, he was very fortunate to teach workshops throughout North America and UK.
Aside from dancing, Daniel plays bagpipes and teaches local students in Collingwood, ON. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he focused his time on finishing up some educational goals and completed teachers college in Toronto. He is also a member of the Canadian Ski Instructors Alliance and Alpine Canada and has taught/coached skiing for 15+ years in the Collingwood area.
He is thrilled to be asked to teach at OSAS after attending as a student in the 1990s and early 2000s.

Nadiene Gibney began her early highland and ballet training with Gladys Forrester, in Toronto, Ontario. By age 9, she had won her first Highland Championship and was also accepted to the full-time program at Canada’s National Ballet School.
After 4 years at the National Ballet School, Nadiene attended an Arts high school in Toronto, to further explore other forms of dance including modern, contemporary, and jazz, where she was the recipient of several prestigious awards for Excellence in Dance.
Nadiene then studied in the Teacher Training Program at Canada’s National Ballet School, from which she graduated with Honours, receiving Distinction on her Cecchetti Associate exam. She has been teaching ballet for 27 years, and now holds her Cecchetti Licentiate designation. She has been the Director of Ballet at several esteemed studios in Ontario, and was an Instructor at The American Academy of Ballet in New York City. Nadiene was also on the Academic Faculty at Canada’s National Ballet School, teaching Art History and Dance History.
Nadiene is currently a respected guest artist and teaches regularly at studios in Toronto, Kitchener, and Burlington, Ontario. She is also a successful, award-winning choreographer in both ballet and highland.
Nadiene is a Champion Highland dancer and enjoyed a very successful competitive career. She has her B.A.T.D. Members in Highland and Scottish National, and has had her own highland dance studio for 25 years, where she has trained Ontario and Canadian Champions, World Championship Finalists, and B.A.T.D. Scholarship winners.
She has performed both locally and internationally with the dance companies, Celtic Accent and the Scottish Dance Company of Canada. She was also in the original production of “Needfire”, in Toronto, at the Princess of Wales Theatre.
Nadiene enjoys teaching, lecturing, and judging, on ballet, highland, and choreography, throughout Canada, the United States, Scotland, and South Africa. She has been an Adjudicator on the R. S.O.B.H.D. World- wide Judges Panel since 2004, and has judged many major Championships internationally, including the World Championships at Cowal, and the Canadian Championships.

Joy (Allen) Tolev started dancing at the age of 3 under the instruction of Mrs. Evelyn Murray in Toronto, Ontario.  During her competitive days she successfully competed in many highland dance competitions and championships throughout Canada and the United States.
She has been teaching at her own school of highland dancing in Toronto for the past 30 years and has produced many dancers of high caliber who have captured titles in various championships including the Ontario, Canadian, Scottish, Commonwealth and World Championships.   There have been over 25 Canadian Championship Titles, many Scottish and Commonwealth Championship titles and runner-ups, and a World Champion who holds 10 World Titles.
She is a Fellow and Examiner of the B.A.T.D., North American Co-ordinator of the B.A.T.D., and adjudicator on the S.O.B.H.D. Judges panel.
Joy teaches annually at the Ohio Scottish Arts School which is a week camp in June, the Delco Workshop in February and travels across Canada, United States, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand, judging, examining and conducting workshops.