Scottish Dance groups in South America

This page contains Scottish Dance groups I know of in South America, together with links to their home pages if I know of them. For some groups I only have their homepage link. I have marked these with "(link only)". If I have missed your favourite group out, I'd love to know so I can add them to this page.

There are also pages for groups in

You might also like Anselm Lingnau's World SCD map. Note I can claim no credit (or blame) for this.

Since anyone anywhere in the world can read this page, I have not included contact addresses or telephone numbers unless I have specifically been given permission. Please contact me if you want contact information.

The groups are arranged by country and then in alphabetical order of location, and are:

Argentina
Bolivia
Brazil

Argentina

BASCDancers (Buenos Aires Scottish Country Dancers)
St Andrews Society of the River Plate, Buenos Aires
Highland Heritage Society, Buenos Aires
South-America Piping Association, Argentina - includes dancers.(link only)

St Andrews Society of the River Plate

St. Andrew's Society of the River Plate was founded in 1888 as a cultural and charity organization to encourage the study of Scottish history, Literature, music, dances and tradition. In fostering these activities the Society organizes these annual events: Kirkin' of the tartans, Kiddies's Caledonian party, Choral festival, Essay Competition, Song, Dance & verse Competition, caledonian Ball, Golf Tournamnet, St. Andew's day banquet and R. Burns supper. In doing so the Sciety is also able to raise funds that enamble us to help various community and charitable associations such as: Children's Public Hopspita, Argentina-Bristish Community Council, British American Benevolonce Society and others.

They have their own pipe band.

They have a website at http://sasrp.8m.com/.

Information supplied by Maria Andrea B. Flight (mflight@infovia.com.ar).

Buenos Aires Tartan Army

Our society was founded in 2008 by Kevin Ham and Mónica Loreto-Tait and supercedes the Highland Heritage Society of Buenos Aires.

Address: Club del Progreso - Sarmiento 1334 – Capital Federal between Talcahuano and Uruguay Streets – Buenos Aires City.

Our activities:

Teaching of Scottish Country dance and highland Dance.
Scottish country dance and highland dance exhibition Group.
Lectures and Conferences about Scottish History and Literature
Tourist information and free trip planning advice
Community Fairs and events around the country. Participation in Different fairs organized by government institutions & Scottish Parties and gatherings. “Burns Night”, “Tartan Day”, “Tartan Day Parade”, “St. Andrews Day”, “Scottish Gala, Dinner and Dance”, “Samhain” and “Clan Gathering”. Trips to Uruguay and Brazil to participate in Scottish events in those countries.
Scottish Music and Bagpipe Music, Scottish and Irish Gifts and souvenirs: Kevin Design Celtic Art
History of Scots in Argentina and Latin America

President and founder: Kevin Ham
Secretary and co-founder: Mónica Loreto Tait

Phone: [+54] 1149581956, mobile: [+54] 1138603140

Website: www.facebook.com/bsastartanarmy/

Information supplied by Mónica Loreto

BASCDancers (Buenos Aires Scottish Country Dancers)

BASCDancers (Buenos Aires Scottish Country Dancers) is an RSCDS Affiliated group created in September 2005.

Classes: every Friday from 8p.m. to 10p.m.

Address: Hipólito Yrigoyen 1640- Buenos Aires (close to the "Congreso de la Nación").

Contact: Email: info@bascdancers.com.ar
Tel: María S. Grimoldi, tel. (011) 4825-0659
Web: www.bascdancers.com.ar
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/bascdancers/323357600613

Information supplied by María Grimoldi

Bolivia

La Paz Scottish Country Dance Group

La Paz Scottish Country Dance Group

Casa del Sol. C. Goitia 127
Meetings:
Saturday 4 - 6 pm

Contact details:
John Cooper (johncooper@acelerate.com)
Valerie Black (valeriemealla@acelerate.com)
Elizabeth Carrasco (elicarras@yahoo.com)
Web: www.freewebs.com/lapazscottishdance/

There have been groups dancing in La Paz at least since the 1960s. The group as now constituted began in 1989 initially as a social gathering amongst predominantly expatriates. Meetings were on an irregular basis depending on work and travel commitments. The group took on a more organised form with the arrival at the Embassy of a Scottish couple in the early nineties with a lot of dancing experience. John & Lena McGhee also had a large house with lots of space for dancing. At this point meeting became more regular on a fortnightly basis and more structured in dancing terms.

After John & Lena left the group was once again without a regular venue and rotated round the homes of participants.

The lack of a regular venue and departure of many of the expatriates prompted the now leader, Valerie Black, to initiate a recruiting drive aimed at attracting Bolivian members. The recruitment proved successful and in October 2001 the present Saturday afternoon format was launched by Valerie Black & John Cooper. The workshops aim not only to teach Scottish Country Dancing but also a little bit about the history and traditions of Scottish Culture.

The group has been affiliated to the RSCDS since 1992. Over the years the group has provided public performances for local cultural and promotional events at the Embassy, Universities, public plazas and for local cultural festivals.

There are parallels between Bolivian and Scottish culture. The highlands of Scotland and the Bolivian high plateau are similar and the political & social organisation of Andean communities have much in common with the old Scottish clan system.

The La Paz Scottish Country Dance Group holds the world record for high altitude Scottish country dancing. In 2002 the Group performed on Mt Chacaltaya, the highest ski resort in the world, at an altitude of 5,260 metres above sea level. This record was previously held by a dance group in Colorado, USA.

The current membership is made up of predominantly Bolivians with a sprinkling of Scots, English, French, American, Dutch and Bolivians and is open to all ages.

Since 2001 the group repertoire has grown to over 100 dances.

The new group project is to visit Scotland for a cultural exchange of taking some aspects of Bolivian culture and dance to Scotland.

Information supplied by Elizabeth Carrasco.

Brazil

St. Andrew Society of Rio de Janeiro

St. Andrew Society of Rio de Janeiro

The St. Andrew Society of Rio de Janeiro was founded in 1906 and will soon be celebrating 100 years.

There are well attended Scottish country dancing classes every Tuesday in the Paissandu Club in Rio and the Iain MacPhail band has been playing at Caledonian Balls for the past fifteen years, first in Rio then São Paulo, then Buenos Aires and Montevideo co-ordinated by myself when I was president - and they're still going strong.

The main objectives of the Society are:

To foster and divulge the Scottish national sentiment and culture
To encourage and promote the knowledge of Scottish history, customs, humour, music, dancing within the community and to our Brazilian hosts and friends.
To organise enjoyable social and sporting events with a Scottish flavour for the Rio de Janeiro community and surrounding areas within the State of Rio de Janeiro.
To maintain contact and liaison with our sister societies in Brazil and throughout South America
To provide donations to local charities and welfare organisations

You do not need to be Scottish to join our society!

Please feel free to contact the committee if you have any doubts:

President: Chris McLauchlan
2271-9326 cmclauchlan@chevrontexaco.com
Vice-president: CLorraine May 2551-3495
lorraine.may@austrade.gov.au
Secretary: Elvyn Marshall
2558-5379 elvyn@domain.com.br
Treasurer: Bob Campbell
3322-3249 bob.campbell@pobox.com
Membership secretary:
Suzan Healey 3410-2503 suzanhealey@attglobal.net

Web page: http://www.umbrellaonline.com.br/community/ST_ANDREW_SOC.html

If you have any other societies you would like me to include here, please mail me with a description. Please also get in touch if you disagree with any of the descriptions already here, and offer your view of the societies. If you want me to publish your view, however, you must give me permission to attribute it to you.

Return to the Grand Chain Scottish Dance Resource pages.

Except where otherwise indicated, all content on this site (including text, images, dance descriptions and any other original work) is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

This page is maintained by Ian Brockbank
ian@scottishdance.net
Edinburgh, Scotland