The StepCrew

Take Nathan and Jon Pilatzke, two brothers from rural Ontario who haphazardly got started in Canadian stepdancing and fiddling as young children. Like a surprisingly high amount of other Canadian children, the two boys spent their summer weekends traveling around Ontario competing in fiddle and stepdance festivals. Years later Nathan and Jon pursued their art forms into a professional career. It is in this forum that they encountered The Chieftains' lead dancer Cara Butler, a multi-time Irish stepdancing champion. The three friends unknowingly and unwittingly created the core, both physically and conceptually, for a new dance production aptly titled The StepCrew. 

Where it is inarguable that The StepCrew is a celebration of dance, one cannot deny the musical abilities of the instrumentalists—two of the dancers themselves being noted as champion Canadian fiddlers. One of The StepCrew’s “secret weapons” is its musical ensemble—some of the most respected musicians in the Celtic genre today perform arrangements perfectly crafted to compliment both traditional and progressive dance moments. The StepCrew boasts performers from The Chieftains, Cherish The Ladies, Lunasa, Loreena McKennit, Carlos Nunez, and Bowfire.