Dancing on the canvas – Broadway star turns tap-dancing skills into works of art
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,” Watts’s said
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 morr 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,” he said “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.
Artist Daniel J Watts