International Council
Royal Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing
Governs
International Council
Overview
The Royal Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing (RSOBHD) is, in its own words, "the worldwide governing body of Highland Dancing", and describes its remit as overseeing "the history, traditions and development of our ancient dance form". It was established in 1950. Its authority over competition is direct: "All competitions are governed by the RSOBHD, ensuring that dancers of a similar standard are grouped together with progression based on experience and result placings." It does not itself teach or examine. Instruction and assessment run through three partner teaching bodies - the SDTA, UKAdance and BATD - which the Board describes as providing "a structured learning curriculum", with dancers given "the opportunity of sitting examinations where their standard will be independently assessed". The dances named on its own site are the traditional Highland dances - the Highland Fling, the Sword Dance (Ghillie Callum), Seann Truibhas, Blue Bonnets, the Lilt, the Hornpipe and the Scottish Jig, with the Pas de Basque named as the first step a dancer learns. The Board describes Highland Dancing as "broken up into three disciplines": the traditional Highland dances, National Dances and Choreography.
Source
This entry records what Royal Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing publishes about itself. We have not written an editorial profile for it yet. Source ↗
Royal Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing, "About Us", highland-dancing.com/about-us-2/, read 2026-09-04, with the dance list from highland-dancing.com/dance-styles/ read the same day. Founding year 1950 from "established in 1950". Governing role and competition authority quoted verbatim in the description. NAME CAUTION, and it cuts the opposite way to our usual one: OUR RECORD WAS OUT OF DATE, not the body. We held this row as "Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing"; the body's own site names it the ROYAL Scottish Official Board of Highland Dancing (RSOBHD) throughout. Updated 2026-09-04. THE YEAR "ROYAL" WAS GRANTED IS NOT ESTABLISHED - the About page does not say, so do not write that a body of this name existed in 1950 until the constitution or a charter is found. The slug sobhd is deliberately unchanged: a slug is a live URL, not a name. CAPABILITIES: sanctions_competition set TRUE on "All competitions are governed by the RSOBHD". examines_syllabus set FALSE deliberately and this is a real distinction, not a gap - the Board routes teaching and examination through three partner bodies (STDA, UKAdance, BATD) rather than examining itself, so a page must not describe the RSOBHD as an examining body. CORRECTED 2026-09-05 after menus re-read the same source before putting it on the site (their message 6769): I had written STDA where the source says SDTA - two letters transposed in a real organisation's name, on a page we publish. Also corrected: the Board says Highland Dancing is "broken up into three disciplines" rather than having National Dance and Choreography as separate competitive categories, and it describes the Pas de Basque as the first step a dancer learns rather than as the basis of the repertoire. All three were my wording running ahead of the source on a page making factual claims about a named third party.
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