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