Born in London, Gillian Whittingham studied at the London College of Dance and Drama and completed her training in New York with Gabriela Darvash. She was appointed ballet mistress for the Compagnia Italiana Balletto directed by Carla Fracci, and choreographed various productions directed by Beppe Menegatti: Nijinskij memorie di giovinezza, with Fracci, Maximova, Vassiliev, VuAn; Cocteau-Opium; Eleonora Duse, Isadora Duncan Adieu et Au Revoir; Cantico di San Giovanni; Fedra, Leggenda e Mito, Quattro eventi per Medea; Parisina.
In the same period she remounted numerous productions: Romeo and Juliet - Cranko, Fascilla, Gai; Giselle - Nunez; Il Vespro siciliano - Deane; Pas de quatre - Dolin from Perrot; Mirandolina - Rodriguez; Esmeralda (pas de deux); Shéhérazade (pas de deux) by Fokine; Les Sylphides; Daphnis e Chloe; Petruška; Le Spectre de la rose; Clytemnestra - Hodson; Medusa - MacGregor.
In 1995 she became Artistic Director of the Olympic Dance Company founded with Mario Mattia Giorgetti, which performed in the principal italian theatres, New York and London.
For ten years she was Principal Ballet Mistress at Teatro alla Scala, Milan, where she remounted works by Balanchine, Bart, Bournmeister, Cranko, MacMillan, Nureyev, Pistoni, and worked with choreographers such as Béjart, Hynd, Makarova, Petit, Preljocaj, Forsythe, van Hoecke, Dell’Ara, Cannito, Guillem.
She then remounted together with Carla Fracci at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma Raymonda, Giselle, Romeo and Juliet, Cinderella and Les Sylphides and choreographed Marina Cvetaeva – Vivo nel Fuoco, and Michelangelo for the same company.
She has worked periodically with the Royal New Zealand Ballet under the direction of Francesco Ventriglia and has set Midsummer Night’s Dream, choreography Liam Scarlett in Australia, New Zealand and U.S.A.
At the present time she is working with Luigi Bonino, Artistic Director of the repertory of Roland Petit and has set the corps de ballet of Notre-Dame de Paris, Coppelia, Carmen, L’Arlésienne, Coppelia, La Chauve-Souris and Pink Floyd in France, Italy, Germany, U.S.A., China, Japan, Russia and Khazakhistan.