Link Ahead with the City of Dublin, Ohio
Link Ahead with the City of Dublin, Ohio
Dancing Beyond Boundaries: The Step Crew Is Ready to Ignite the Dublin Irish Festival
The magic of dance comes alive in this captivating conversation with The Step Crew, the innovative dance ensemble that blends Ottawa Valley step dancing, Irish step dancing, and elements of tap into a mesmerizing performance style all their own. Brothers Jon and Nathan Pilatzky join Cara Butler (Jon's wife) to share the remarkable journey that brought them from separate dance traditions to creating a show that puts movement front and center.
Their connection with the Dublin Irish Festival runs deep. "Dublin was the first festival to hire us as The Step Crew way back in 2007," Cara explains, highlighting how the festival took a chance on their then-new concept. This marks their sixth appearance, underscoring the special relationship between these world-class performers and what they describe as a "professional yet organic" festival atmosphere.
The trio's performance credentials dazzle – from appearances on late-night television to sharing stages with music legends Emmylou Harris and Alison Krauss at the historic Ryman Auditorium. Nathan (affectionately nicknamed "Crazy Legs" for his rubber-like dancing ability) calls that performance "one of the highlights of my career." Their journey began with The Chieftains, where the brothers first met Cara and discovered how their different dance styles could complement each other.
Throughout the conversation, their warmth and humor shine through, especially during rapid-fire questions revealing personal quirks – from Cara's protein snack obsession to Nathan's love of hand-washing dishes and John's encyclopedic knowledge of Seinfeld episodes. But what truly resonates is their passion for performance and their genuine love for the Dublin Irish Festival community.
Don't miss your chance to experience The Step Crew's unique fusion of dance traditions at this year's Dublin Irish Festival. As Cara puts it, "You're just going to have so much fun. Visit DublinIrishFestival.org for all the information you need.
Hello and welcome to Link Ahead the City of Dublin podcast. And once again we are bringing you a Link Ahead first with not one, not two, but three guests who are also separated by more than 3,000 miles. Here's a hint One of them is joining us from Ireland.
Speaker 2:That's right. Yep, it's that time. The largest three-day Irish festival in the world is almost here. We're just pumped to have three members of Step Crew joining us. They are longtime veterans of the Dublin Irish Festival and be performing every day this year. So please welcome to Link Ahead John Polatsky and Kara Butler joining us from Toronto and Nathan Polatsky joining us from Ireland. Welcome all of you.
Speaker 3:Hi there, how's it going?
Speaker 1:We're doing great. There are a lot of tents outside of our building ready to welcome you and we're so excited to have you all here.
Speaker 3:Well, we're excited to be back, that is for sure. We've been looking forward to this for a long time.
Speaker 1:Well, great, well, we will talk all about you guys here in a moment, but first let's talk about us for a little bit. The Dublin Irish Festival won Best Cultural Festival in the USA Today Reader's Choice Awards and claimed the number one spot for the Best Suburban Festival in City Scenes Best of the Bus Awards. 100,000 people or so come to this festival every year, so let's hear from you all. Why do you love coming and performing here year after year, kara? Why don't you start us off?
Speaker 3:Well, it's quite simple. You just said it, you were voted the best. And you know, I have to say, dublin was the first festival to hire us as the step crew, way back in 2007. We had just put our little big show together and we really, you know, kind of it was like our we were just taking our first steps out there as a group. We had all three of us had performed um with various bands and obviously with the chieftains, for a really long time, and we decided to put together this show, which put dancing at the front, front and center, as opposed to being, you know, dancing with a band per se. And, uh yeah, dublin hired us in 2007. We've been back five times.
Speaker 1:This is going to be our sixth time, so not only do we have fans there, we're big fans, so it's really exciting all right, john, I know you said kara speaks for you, but if you have anything else to add, why do you love coming here to Dublin Ohio?
Speaker 4:I mean, some of the best Irish musicians in the world all congregate. That one weekend there is, you know, sessions, tunes to be had all around the festival, even in the hotel. It's a big, you know, reunion of tons of friends, whether they be spectators or performers in the festival themselves, a chance to see all our I won't say old, friends.
Speaker 2:Long time friends Tenured.
Speaker 4:Yes, and we all tend to be on tour all the time so we don't get to meet up all the time. So it's such a wonderful weekend and just the vibe of the festival itself. It's very organic, yet very professional. Somehow they managed to bring both of those things together. Just the grass, the nature of it, versus a, a concrete, you know grounds or something like that is just so lovely. And you know the committee. They make it so very, very easy to be a performer there.
Speaker 1:Wow, I'm glad we're recording this.
Speaker 4:That was a great answer.
Speaker 1:Professional and organic. That was a great ad for us. All right, and all the way from Ireland, nathan, how about you?
Speaker 5:Yeah, well, I was just going to add just the organization of it all. It's all very well taken care of. The artists are taken care of, the crowd is taken care of, it's very well done, very professional and everything goes very smoothly. So looking forward to doing it again.
Speaker 2:Awesome. Now last year we talked to banjo legend and diff staple into Scowhill of we Banjo 3 and now performing with Gadan. He says he comes back here every year because the dedicated fans, the city staff, the volunteers that take care of him and it's like a sense of family. So you know you kind of touched on that, but do you feel that same sort of sense of family when you come to Dublin Ohio?
Speaker 3:Yeah, 100% we do. You know, like I said, we were just kids and starting out and they took us in and they really helped us grow as a show Like our show changed a lot from being in a performing arts center to then taking it to a festival stage.
Speaker 1:Well, speaking of family, let's talk about Step Crew, because this is kind of a family affair, right? So Kara and John are married and John and Nathan are brothers, is that right? How did the Step Crew come together?
Speaker 4:I guess I'll handle that one, since I'm one of the married and one of the brothers. So Nathan and I obviously been performing together since we were just we lads around Ontario and really all throughout Canada step dancing together. Our form of dance is called Ottawa Valley Step Dancing. We ran into, we bought tickets to go see the Chieftains here in Toronto both of us big fans and absolutely just fell in love. Never seen them before but fell in love with the group and noticed this tall redhead dancer with the Cheap Tons.
Speaker 4:But we managed to sneak our way into the after party in Toronto and brought our shoes with us and we ended up dancing at that party and Paddy Maloney, the front man for the band, uh took down our phone numbers and about a year later we got a call from the chieftain's management asking if we wanted to do a big concert with them. That concert didn't happen and we, we, we kind of thought, oh boy, we, we lost our big chance. But we got another call, uh, when their USA tour started up. So that was our chance to meet the Chieftains, perform with the Chieftains and also meet Cara Butler I won't get too far into that story.
Speaker 1:That's a different podcast.
Speaker 3:That's when he really fell in love.
Speaker 1:That's awesome.
Speaker 4:So Nathan and I had never performed really with much irish dancing, so we got to know about her style, she got to know about our style and we started kind of mixing and mingling both ottawa valley step dancing and irish step dancing and eventually kind of an idea formulated where, um, we were noticing such great crowd reactions in the Chieftain shows that we thought, hey, instead of a band featuring dancing on the side, how about we have dancing in the front and we feature a band on the side.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm going to speak for myself because I'm not much of a dancer here, but walk us through this, because you mentioned Ottawa Valley, First Irish Step Dance and also a little bit of tap too. So can you talk about?
Speaker 5:how you meld all three on stage and then maybe break down each individual type of dance. Go ahead, nate, yes, well, words start to fail here. That's where you kind of have to come out and see the show Great plug. That's where you kind of have to come out and see the show great plug at least. Or at least look up some videos pretty hard to describe in words.
Speaker 5:Now most people have a concept of what Irish dancing is and and tap dancing's out there pretty prominently as well. Um, but the style that John and I do is kind of rare unless you've seen it. A lot of people who see it for the first time basically say I've never seen anything like that before in my life, so I don't know how I could put that into words for you. So we try, and we have lots in common and lots of differences as well too. So we definitely accentuate the commonalities at points and then we go off, take off into our own styles and uh, and try and show you the big differences as well too, while we're, while we're entertaining you I can hear your youtube clicks going up and up and up all right right now.
Speaker 2:Everyone try and go check that out so this is probably a good time to talk to you uh, each of you individually, because you all have such fascinating stories to tell. Now, cara, you started out dancing when you were six and since then you've been showcasing your craft worldwide, on late night TV, on commercials and in movies. Where did that passion for dance come from? And performing?
Speaker 3:Well, to be honest, it's just. It happened very naturally. My, my old, my mom is from naturally, my mom is from Ireland, my mom's from Ballyhaunus County. Mayo, and my older sister, jean, was going to Irish dancing class and me being the younger sister, I just tagged along. I was too young to start, but I kind of had to stay in the class anyway and I just sat on the sidelines and then I just said I couldn't wait till it was my turn, until I was old enough. And sure enough, I got old enough and I started competing. We were going to feshes and then, you know, bigger competitions and my sister and I we turned out to be not half bad, so we just kept going with that and I, you know, I give a lot of credit to not only my parents but to my dancing teacher, donnie Golden, who really, really, you know, focused on the culture of Irish dancing even though we were a highly competitive school.
Speaker 3:It was really about the community, it was about the camaraderie, it was about the music, it was about the relation to Ireland and I started doing shows from a very early age, probably first with Cherish the Ladies and then obviously, with the Cheaptons and then from there branched out to Solace and Dervish and Danu and Lunasa. So I've been really lucky as far as performing with the greatest of Irish bands that have, you know, not only in Ireland but over here, and I just, you know, genuinely loved it. I loved the music, I loved moving to the music and even meeting, obviously, john and Nathan. It was something very, very different for me too. And you know, Patti Maloney literally said we had a show that night. We met in the afternoon. It was like, ok, you guys were doing, you know, the Bucks of Oranmore and put some steps together and it was just like boom, and we noticed that, ok, the styles are really different, but we can dance the same music and we can make this work. And I just thought that was kind of magical too.
Speaker 2:You named some powerhouse entertainment right there Just those those crews. Kind of magical too. You named some powerhouse entertainment right there, just those those crews. So we also a little birdie, told us that you unfortunately have a not so great story from Dublin, that you might've had an injury.
Speaker 3:I did. I didn't break my foot. That was in China. That was in China. I was with Dervish in 2000 and I think it was 2017. And yes, I slipped. I think I slipped or my foot hit the monitor and I sprained my ankle really badly. But again, talk about family. They took such good care of me all weekend. I was really really well looked after and thankfully my ankle healed. No problem, so nice.
Speaker 2:All right, john, ankle healed, no problem, so nice. All right, john, to you now and again. You and your brother have more awards than shelves at your house can possibly accommodate. So you've danced and played on David Letterman and for a Nobel Peace Prize honoree, you and your brother have received the Canadian equivalent of an Emmy Award, which is called a Gemini Award. What set you on your performance path?
Speaker 4:Woo, that's a very good question. I mean, I suppose it all boils down to the dedication of our parents lessons, the cost of shoes and costumes and gas to drive around the province and the country and the continent. Really, um, our poor parents put, put in the time to make sure that, um, that we performed, uh, and, and we truly did love it, uh, when, when we didn't practice, the only threat our mother had to give us was if you don't practice, you're not going to lessons next week. And that was enough to get us up and on the dance board. As you grow older and you mature and I took up the fiddle when I was nine years old, playing fiddle, so I used to consider myself a dancer who played music and I've slowly morphed into a musician who dances. But yeah, just, you know, as you grow and you kind of develop your own style, your own ideas of what's great on stage, you learn from audiences pretty quick what, what works, what doesn't.
Speaker 4:Nathan and I moved to Toronto and started into a musical. It was a very big budget musical here they were trying for the first time called Swing Step. So that's the very first time both of us, two country boys, living downtown Toronto in the big city, and that show ran, had a nice long run, and when it finished we were like, well, what do we do now? Should we go back to university? Or? And then just serendipitously ran into the Chieftains and life continued on from there. So yeah, it's been. It's been a real journey.
Speaker 5:As we like to joke. We got older and we matured and most people get sense, but we didn't have the sense to quit, so we just kept going. We're glad you did.
Speaker 2:Lucky for us All. Right, Nathan, I have to ask you a question. So you got the nickname Crazy Legs somehow, and we want to hear how Crazy Legs came to be.
Speaker 5:Well, I don't know I think it was probably the audience kind of came up with that one. You know that trick you can do with a pencil, where you wiggle it up and down and back and forth. It's made out of rubber. I think I can do something like that with my legs sometimes. So I think that somebody caught hold of that and started broadcasting it around and it kind of stuck with me. I've never been able to shake it.
Speaker 4:There's spaghetti legs, there's rubber legs, there's crazy legs, and then there's he doesn't have a bone in his body.
Speaker 1:Well, you talked about the different kinds of dancing earlier, but you also have incorporated Celtic music with funk, reggae, jazz and rock music. How exactly do you do that?
Speaker 4:Oh boy, well it's. It's so interesting because Celtic music, I mean it's getting more modernized. As you know, since I was a kid it's really changed quite a bit, and that's one of the things that I really loved about touring with the Chieftains is they have a way of maintaining the very old style of music and tune selection, but also, like it depends on who you bring in into the band and what kind of sounds you get from, say, an electric guitar or different sounds on a keyboard and stuff like that, even a drummer versus a baron player, and everybody can enjoy both parts of that. At Dublin Irish Fest there's a Celtic rock stage versus more very traditional stages. All that variety is being showcased these days.
Speaker 1:Well, you have performed worldwide on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, on just about every continent too. We have to mention one gig specifically. You performed at the world-famous Ryman Auditorium with legends Emmylou Harris and Alison Krauss. Tell us about that performance.
Speaker 4:Go on, Nathan.
Speaker 5:Well, the Chieftains did two albums called Down the Old Plank Road and Further Down the Old Plank Road, and then they recorded it as a DVD. So all of the guests from a lot of the tracks were there that night at the Rhyme and I fail to recollect what year that was now, but it was a good while ago and, yeah, there was everyone and anyone the who's who of country music at that time. So it was an amazing honor. I think we got to dance to a track with Freaky Skaggs actually One of the highlights of my career for sure. An amazing event. And I just ran into someone recently, a very up-and-coming singer here in Ireland, and he came up to me when we were doing a gig together. And he came up to me and he said that was a DVD that his parents had and they played it non-stop in their tv. So I guess it's inspiring a younger generation.
Speaker 1:Yeah for our younger listeners. A dvd is a round disc you use to watch movies or videos.
Speaker 4:That's right and that was. That was one of my very first shows. I started as a dancer with the Chieftains and then Patty realized that I play fiddle, because I carry the fiddle around with me to all the shows, hoping to just have a tune with the guys. You know, casual backstage, something like that. And Martin Fay didn't show up for one of the tours. I think he ended up getting his appendix out or something. Anyway, paddy said, well, you carry that thing around if you want to come up and play it. I said well, and I had heard the show many times. So that was one of my first shows where I see Alison Krauss coming out we do a song together. Ricky Skaggs comes out we do a song together. Emmylou Harris comes out, we do a song together. So I was. I don't think I slept much that night.
Speaker 1:Awesome, all right.
Speaker 2:Speaking of not sleeping, it's summer in the United States and it's festival season, so what other festivals will you play and give our listeners the inside scoop on traveling? How many miles, how many performances? Give us the inside scoop on traveling.
Speaker 3:Like how many miles, how many performances? Give us the deets, please. So how many miles, we don't count, we're performing as far as this summer we're at Milwaukee Irish, obviously. We're at Dublin Irish Fest, then the week after Nathan's at Goderard, that's correct, john is at fergus hyphen games, um, and then we go to a beautiful festival in quebec.
Speaker 3:I'm going to call it traditions du monde, but it has a longer frencher, frencher name sure, yes and from there we go straight to milwaukee, and then after milwaukee we're doing two really special shows here in ontario. Funny enough, like being a canadian band, we don't tour canada that often. We're usually in the states or over in europe or or somewhere else. And this year we're doing pembroke, ontario, which is very, very close to where John and Nathan both grew up, so it's a hometown gig for them and it's at Festival Hall. And then after that we're doing Hughes Room right here in Toronto, which is a big deal as well, and right from there we go to Kansas City and after Kansas City we're in back in the states for um, the big e it's called, and it's a really, really huge festival that takes place in springfield, massachusetts. We haven't done it before, so I have no idea what to expect, but like zz top is going to be there, so it's a big variety of of music and bands she's got legs.
Speaker 2:She's got legs. There you go. And then maybe they work it out?
Speaker 1:Was that written?
Speaker 3:for Tara and she knows how to use them.
Speaker 2:That's right, what is travel fun? We've talked to the lead singer of 38 Special. We've talked to the lead singer of a couple of bands and they talk about travel being this kind of a lot of work. What is it like for you guys?
Speaker 3:It's a lot of work.
Speaker 5:It's kind of one of the things you'd want to get paid for to do this.
Speaker 1:Yes that's exactly what they said, and I won't ask who gets into more fights on the road, the brothers or the spouses.
Speaker 3:Nobody fights on the road.
Speaker 1:I can only imagine, you know what the key is.
Speaker 3:You know what the key is. You know what the key is. The secret is separate vehicles. There you go, perfect. Separate everything Perfect no not everything, Jason Come on.
Speaker 1:Well, we could talk to you three all day, but we have time for a segment called Rapid Fire and so we did a little bit of homework. I hope it was right. And Kara, you're first. Is this true? You can't stand the smell or sound of someone chewing gum? Tell us about that, why.
Speaker 3:So when I was really young, bringing up my sister again, I was trying to be like her and blow bubbles and I basically blew it straight into the back of her head and it got stuck in her hair and I think I got punished really badly and since then I don't like it.
Speaker 1:That makes sense. That's terrible. It is a true story. Did she have to cut her hair? I believe so. Yeah, bad memory Speaking of bad memories.
Speaker 2:Kara, let's stay with that theme. You say you're a huge klutz and you've broken your tailbone twice. Is that a true statement?
Speaker 3:So I have injured my tailbone, fractured my tailbone twice, but that was not because I was a klutz, but because the stage was really slippy and I fell All right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm not a klutz, we'll make sure our stages are not slippery in Dublin.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:Last one for you, kara. You say you have 5 am feedings for yourself and always have snacks around.
Speaker 3:So what are your go to snacks? So my go to snacks would be I eat a lot of protein snacks. Okay, so proteins might go to lots of nuts, almonds, for sure, Protein bars, fruit and yeah, I mean the 5am thing, I think I. I think I answered that question when we were on the road and we were having a lot of 5 am lobby calls. So I don't get up at 5 am just to have something to eat. But I do have very high metabolism, so I'm hungry all the time.
Speaker 2:All right, Nathan, you're in the hot seat. We found out you love to work with stained glass. What's the best piece you've ever made?
Speaker 5:Oh, I haven't gotten too into it. Uh, I made a candle holder once, which was I was pretty proud of that. Now you like window catcher things? Sure, yeah, no, I haven't tackled a window or anything how about the hardest piece? The candle holder.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it sounds pretty intricate probably all right, you wear long sleeves and long pants all year round, even here in Dublin in August.
Speaker 5:How come? I think that I can take a lot of heat and I don't like the sun on my skin necessarily, so it's not like an allergy or anything, I just like staying covered up. So I don't know, it doesn't bother me. I dance in jibback. I'm used to the heat, I don't. I just like staying covered up. So I don't know, I I it doesn't bother me. I dance into jackets and I'm used to the eat. I don't know. I was born in a sauna or something so we don't see those crazy legs yeah, um, we hear you actually love washing dishes by hand.
Speaker 1:If this is not a joke, could you please tell us the best dish soap to use?
Speaker 5:soap to use. Oh, my god, I'm not too fussy about that. I have some natural time there at the moment. But yeah, no, I find it very meditative. It's very like, uh, it's very uh. I don't know, I just zone out or or sometimes I just put on a podcast and go to town and probably takes me even longer than it should because I'm interested in what I'm listening to. So, but yeah, I don't know the names of the soap that.
Speaker 4:I use what's, what's. What's the dish soap in Ireland.
Speaker 5:Oh, fairy, fairy liquid.
Speaker 1:Oh fairy liquid. I'm going to call all all dish liquid that from now on Dish detergent is going to be fairy liquid.
Speaker 2:All right, john, you've seen the level of questions that we've been asking here, so we hear you don't stretch before dancing. How is this possible?
Speaker 4:well, I've gotten a bit older, since he's gonna start stretching um no, I mean I'm not gonna speak for nathan but our style of dance, like you know, warm up and stretching was never really focused on as a kind of part of the whole process. So there was a good few decades there where I didn't bother. You just put the shoe, like bending over to tie the dance shoes. That's stretching.
Speaker 1:All right, we heard that you're quite a Sefeld fan. You've seen every episode like 10 times or maybe more, so do you have a favorite episode?
Speaker 4:oh, I certainly have many and and again. Since that went, since you got that information, I think I've seen them even more. They just get better. Basically any episode where elaine dances yes that's it. Oh, I wish everyone could see the dance any episode that has uh newman or any episode that uh j Peterman. Jay Peterman, yes.
Speaker 2:That is funny. All right, so we dispelled the myth that Kara eats at 5 am. So we heard that you don't have a first meal until 7 pm.
Speaker 4:That is often true. Yes, I'll do the cup of coffee in the morning. Sometimes lunch is of zero interest to me, and so, yeah, that brings me to dinner time, which is a feast. Depending on if the Toronto Blue Jays are playing, you know, I might have to eat before the game.
Speaker 2:Hey, they're in first place right now, so you shouldn't be too upset with them.
Speaker 4:They are doing very well and let's hope they continue to do so, yeah.
Speaker 1:At one point you were thinking about medical school and pursuing a science degree. Is that right, and what changed that?
Speaker 4:That's correct. I went to Queen's University in Ontario here and the plan was kind of like a pre-med program and I alluded to that musical that came Nathan and I's way before, called Swing Step. So basically that call came in and I had to make a decision. You know, am I going to drop school and, you know, defer a year and give this musical a shot, or should I do as all the parental figures are telling me and get the degree, make sure I have that tucked away and then pursue a performance career? But I kind of thought this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. So let's give the performance a try and defer one year and never went back.
Speaker 3:Rest is history.
Speaker 2:And finally, if you had to, to our listeners that let's say they've never been to the Delman Irish Festival. Why should they go to the Delman Irish Festival to see you perform?
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, you're just going to have so much fun. The show is. The show is really fun. You're going to get to see three different styles of dance with an amazing band. We're there to entertain you and you know, we just want to share our love of dance with you. That's why you should come.
Speaker 5:And if you don't like us, there's plenty else to do Well.
Speaker 1:Let's leave it right there, john Karen. Nathan, we cannot wait to see you at the 2025 Dublin Irish Festival. You're engaging storytellers and such incredible dancers, musicians and performers. We will see you soon, thank you for having us and yeah come see the staff group Awesome.
Speaker 2:And to our listeners, we hope to see you at the 38th Dublin Irish Festival. Download the DIFF app and visit DublinIrishFestivalorg for all the details. Tune in next time as we continue to explore the many personalities and experiences that make Dublin a thriving place to live, work and grow.