Dancing on the canvas – Broadway star turns tap-dancing skills into works of art

A Broadway performer is utilizing his tap-dancing skills in a way that he never imagined he would.

Daniel J. Watts creates paintings by dancing on the canvas – his sneaker-clad feet acting as brushes as he improvises abstract works of art.

Watts, who received a 2020 Tony Award nomination for originating the role of Ike Turner in “Tina: The Tina Turner Musical,” says painting has become a unique creative outlet.

“Sometimes art, or my art, is a fight. Or I'm working through something…but I can play more here. It's all dance,” he says.

Watts had never painted until the pandemic shut down Broadway theaters in 2020. With the Turner musical on pause for a year and a half, he was looking for a new way to be creative.

Watts has appeared in numerous Broadway productions including "Hamilton," "The Color Purple," “Memphis” and "In The Heights." But he says painting provides him with a more intimate artistic expression than being on stage.

"I'm allowing myself to be free in space and time…That's how I win the day," says Watts. "I won today if I created something. That means I was free today."

In January, Watts exhibited his paintings at Caelum Gallery in New York City, the first gallery showing of his artwork.