The Thistle Dancers and Pipers

08/27/2026

Look at all the places you can come see us before the end of the year!!

08/26/2026

08/22/2026

Come try out a FREE class! Contact Susan for more info, fees and schedules.

08/11/2026

There is a Scottish dog so noble that for centuries a common man was forbidden by law to own one, a hound kept only by earls and chiefs. 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

The Scottish Deerhound is one of the oldest breeds in the world, bred over countless generations to course the red deer across the open Highland hills. Tall as a small pony at the shoulder, wrapped in a rough grey coat made for wind and rain, it could run down a stag on the roughest ground and hold it until the hunters came. To do that work it needed speed, stamina, courage and a calm and gentle heart, and it carries all four to this day.

For the old clans the deerhound was far more than a working animal. It was a companion of the hall and the hearth, lying at the feet of the chief, walking at the side of his children, mourned like family when its years were done. Sir Walter Scott, who owned one himself, called his beloved Maida the most perfect creature of heaven, and anyone who has known a deerhound understands exactly what he meant. 🐾

Beneath that shaggy, dignified exterior lives one of the softest natures in the whole dog world. A breed built to bring down a stag is, in the home, quiet, affectionate and almost absurdly gentle, happiest simply leaning its great weight against the person it loves.

When you look into the eyes of a Scottish Deerhound you are looking at the Highlands themselves, at the glens and the deer and the old chiefs who walked beside these hounds a thousand years ago. They are living heritage, still with us, still leaning in close.

If your people came from the hills of Scotland, this quiet giant walked beside them too. 💛

08/10/2026

Tell your friends!!
Contact Susan for scheduling and fees! Cell: (571)217-7705 or email: [email protected]

08/08/2026

⚜️A Century, On Display🎄

From historic photographs to festival keepsakes, the Century of Christmas exhibit tells the story of how one small community celebration grew into one of Louisiana's most beloved traditions. Now open at the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame and Northwest Louisiana History Museum. It's open to the public.

Presented with Cane River National Heritage Area, Louisiana State Museums, and FLASH.

✅ Plan your visit and see what's ahead for the season at NatchitochesChristmas.com

07/18/2026

NSU Annual FolkLife Festival!
First performance for one dancer, last performance (hopefully not) for two headed to college next month! Love my little school!

07/17/2026

Schedule of events for the 2026 stages in Prather Coliseum. There will also be live demonstrations, informances, narrative sessions, a magic show, crafts galore, and so much more, including the Louisiana State Fiddle Championship in the Magale Recital Hall!

04/30/2026

These are the Standing Stones of Stenness, right at the heart of Neolithic Orkney. They're iconic, they're enormous and they're also the oldest stone circle anywhere in the British Isles.

Wait until you find out what happened them though...

There are four upright stones still standing at Stenness, the largest around 6 metres tall! Erected about 5400 years ago around a hearth with a surrounding ditch, we don't know what it was originally used for, but evidence suggests this was the very first one built anywhere.

From Orkney, whatever the idea was behind the Stones of Stenness spread, reaching right through Scotland, out to the Western Isles and all the way south past Stonehenge in England. This was a culture where Orkney was central rather than considered a far-flung archipelago!

Originally there would have been 12 standing stones here, plus an outlier with a hole in the middle that became known as the Odin Stone - a reminder of Orkney's Viking past. Even in the 19th century, locals would clasp hands through the hole to make oaths or confirm their engagements.

That all stopped in December 1814, when a Captain Mackay who had moved to Orkney and bought a farm claimed they got in the road of his plough and all the locals visiting were damaging his land. He began by smashing the Odin Stone into pieces before starting to topple the Stones of Stenness!

Luckily, he was stopped by the law before he got to all of them and it's safe to say his neighbours weren't pleased. There were more than a few attempts to burn his house down!

Walter Scott wasn't much better for the stones after declaring one of them as being part of an altar for human sacrifice. It was just his famous imagination running away with itself, but in 1907 somebody decided to reconstruct this altar from the smaller stones.

Nobody seemed to think it looked right and eventually, the altar slab was pushed over again, still lying where it fell. It doesn't need a strange mock-altar anyway, the Stones of Stenness are evocative enough as reminders of Scotland's most ancient civilization.