WATCH: 'My goal is to win the worlds next year' – Inverness's Highland dancing star wants to be the best
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Following Lily Kelman’s continuous success in Highland dancing, The Inverness Courier wanted to find what it takes for a young athlete to compete at this level. Erin Miller went along to meet her.
After a three-and-a-half-month break due to injury, 16-year-old Lily Kelman fought against her body to be able to compete at the 2023 Cowal Gathering Highland Dancing World Championships – an event at which she had previously won the Juvenile world championship title.
This in itself, showed Lily's drive and determination as she went on to be named reserve champion in the Junior section at this year's world championships despite having just six weeks to train and still carrying a niggling muscular injury in her calf.
Highland dancing is a highly physical sport that is very strenuous on the body. Lily's training consists of at home practice that she does in a dance studio in her garden in Dalneigh.
“I train about three to four times a week at home for about an hour," said the Inverness High School pupil. "Then dance classes are usually about an hour or an hour-and-a-half and I go to a dance class in Glasgow every Tuesday.
“I sort of just manage to study and do dancing at the same time. So when I come home from school I’ll study and I am doing that in school too as well but then dancing is quite good because for me it is a break from that pressure.”
Her mum Yvonne travels with her to competitions across the country almost every weekend, including competitions in Canada and Las Vegas when Lily was just 12.
"Highland dancing used to have a season years ago when I was doing it but there are so many competitions now that you could be doing it every weekend," Yvonne said. “The summer games are great, it is a great way to get out and it is great training for Cowal, because even though it is the world championships, it is in Dunoon and it is a games so it is outside.
"Lily first went there when she was eight, she hadn’t done many games and you could tell. The weather is always terrible at Cowal so it had a huge effect on the little ones’ dancing. So the next year we decided to do as many games as we could just to get her used to being outside, to change outside and to get the body ready for it.”
Lily spoke about the additional benefits that this intensity of training has for her fitness and how consistency throughout the year is key to her successes when it comes bigger competitions: “It definitely helps to be training all year round as it helps to keep up fitness which is absolutely massive in Highland dancing. Just to be able to get through the dance, so the more you do the easier it gets.”
Yvonne explained Lily's training in Glasgow allows her to be alongside adults: “She can become that bit fitter and build up on her stamina. She is looking to train that bit harder, to sharpen up and to perfect her art. You have to be so disciplined to do it. I think that people think that Highland dancing is just you going to the games and doing some Highland dancing but the work and physicality that is involved with it is just huge.
"There are always younger ones coming in though who are all so good. You can never be complacent. There is always someone striving to be better than you. So you have to keep your feet on the ground.”
A lot of young people already in the sport look up to Lily and many are likely to have been inspired by her recent success. Lily's advice to youngsters looking to give Highland dancing a try was: “I would definitely say go for it. It is nice because you get to exercise as well and the friends you make are amazing because they are life-long friends that you have.”
Looking to next year, Lily is hoping to keep on top of any injuries and put in consistent performances: “My hopes for next year are to go out and to try and win as many championships as possible. My ultimate goal is to win the worlds next year at Cowal.”
