The Thistle Dancers
NATCHITOCHES – The Louisiana Folklife Center at Northwestern State University will present “A Visit with the Bagpipe” at 2 p.m. Saturday, July 11 at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum at 800 Front Street in Natchitoches. The event will be free and open to the general public.
Attendees at this interactive workshop will learn the basics of traditional Celtic bagpipe playing and drumming, as well as Highland dance. The origins and history of the Great Highland bagpipe will be discussed. Practice chanters will be provided so that participants can try their hand at playing a Great Highland bagpipe in a hygienic manner. In addition to the scales, participants will learn to play an iconic bagpipe tune. Also featured will be the Bouzouki guitar and the Irish Bodhrán drum. The workshop will also include a Celtic music and dance performance by the Thistle Dancers and Pipers. Workshop instructors Susan Hyams and L. Collier Hyams will share their long experience and cultural knowledge of Celtic music and dance.
“This musical workshop will provide attendees a rare opportunity to learn firsthand the basics of playing the Highland bagpipe,” said Dr. Shane Rasmussen, professor of English and director of the Louisiana Folklife Center at Northwestern State University. “We are grateful to tradition bearers like the Hyams who so generously offer the priceless gift of sharing their cultural knowledge.”
Susan Hyams has been playing bagpipes for over 35 years and started Scottish Highland dancing at age five. After competing and performing in both piping and dancing throughout the Northeastern states she decided to pursue her dream of having a Celtic school and formed the Thistle Dancers and Pipers in Virginia. The school became one of the largest highland dance schools on the East coast and in the early 2000’s had over 70 dancers and 15 piping students. She met Collier Hyams in 2002 at the Savannah Scottish Games. Collier was playing guitar and percussion with a Celtic rock band. In 2005 they were married in Laggan, Scotland. She has been a member of the City of Alexandria (Virginia) Pipes and Drums, the St. Andrews College Pipe Band, the Chesapeake Caledonians and the St. Andrews Ladies’ Pipe Band and has played pipes with the famous Celtic band The Chieftains, opened for the Tannahill Weavers, played for then President Clinton at the Presidential Golf Cup and for the Republic of Ireland National Soccer team at the U.S. Cup at Foxboro Stadium in Massachusetts. The Hyams moved to Natchitoches in 2016 and in 2019 the Thistle Dancers and Pipers was reformed, debuting with two dances at the Natchitoches Folklife Festival. Since 2019, the group has grown to 15 dancers and 3 pipes and has performed all over Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. This past spring the group’s three teen dancers auditioned and were invited to travel to New York City to perform during National Tartan Week. Susan is a certified Highland Dance Teacher through the British Association of Teachers of Dancing and was a member of the Eastern United States Piping Association for many years. She currently teaches highland dance and bagpipes in her private studio in Natchitoches.
- Collier Hyams grew up as a foreign service dependent in culturally rich places such as Thailand, Germany and Louisiana with stints in Ghana, Jamaica and Scotland. He has toured and recorded with world, reggae, rock, future music, and Celtic groups in North America, Europe, and bits of West Africa, Southeast Asia and South America. His primary creative outlet is as frontman and writer for the CMJ charting 50 Man Machine. Collier has spent the better part of a decade touring with Highland Bagpipers Neil Anderson (Seven Nations, Rathkeltair), EJ Jones (Clandestine, Teribus, Brizeus) and others. While based in NYC he worked with Will Calhoun (Living Colour), Jaron Lanier, Sussan Deyhim, Shirin Neshat, Laurie Anderson, Richard Horowitz, Peter Scherer, Julia Duka Duka Heyward, Big Twin, Sean Lennon and currently Scott Ambush of Spyro Gyra.
The Thistle Dancers and Pipers will participate in the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival on July 18. In honor of the 2026 Festival theme, “America the Beautiful,” the Festival will feature the traditional music of the nation – blues, gospel, Cajun, Celtic, country, bluegrass and zydeco on three stages of music as well as in the Magale Recital Hall. Over 70 traditional crafts persons from throughout the state will display their crafts, handcrafting their work during the festival.
Held in air-conditioned Prather Coliseum, the Natchitoches-NSU Folk Festival features three stages of live music, Louisiana cuisine food vendors, the Louisiana State Fiddle Championship, dance lessons, music informances, narrative sessions, on-site demonstrations and more. Admission to this family friendly event is $10 for an all-day all event pass, with children 12 and under admitted free all day.
For more information on the bagpipe workshop or the festival, call the Louisiana Folklife Center at (318) 357-4332, email folklife@nsula.edu, or go to https://www.nsula.edu/folklife/. Questions about the workshop can also be directed to instructor Susan Hyams at (571) 217-7705 or thistledancersandpipers@gmail.com.
The event is sponsored by the Louisiana Folklife Center and the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest History Museum and is in partnership with the City of Natchitoches. Support for the Festival is provided by grants from the Cane River National Heritage Area, Inc., the Louisiana Division of the Arts Decentralized Arts Fund Program, the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the Natchitoches Historic District Development Commission, the Natchitoches Convention and Visitors Bureau, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Foundation, the Shreveport Regional Arts Council and the State of Louisiana.
The views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this program do not necessarily represent those of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities.