Travis Knights
Choreographer
Tap Dancer. Performer. Choreographer. Speaker. Believer. Travis Knights is realizing his dreams, pounding rhythms on wood floors all over the world. His talent and dedication have earned him audiences in Shanghai, Dusseldorf, Paris, New York, and Vancouver to name a few.
His career started in 2000, when he was cast as a principal dancer in the motion picture biography of Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson with Gregory Hines and Savion Glover. The film, Bojangles, was choreographed by the legendary Henry LeTang.
In 2006, he was tapped to be the principal dancer in the video game adaptation of Warner Brother's Happy Feet. In 2007 and 2008, Travis participated extensively as a Tap Dance consultant for Cirque du Soleil. He had the privilege of performing in Tandem Act Productions' Diary of a Tap Dancer at the Apollo Theatre, and the touring show Wonderland: A Tap Tribute to Stevie Wonder, created by Ayodele Casel and Sarah Savelli. Knights was a featured Tap Dancer in the Opening Ceremonies to the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver. In the same year he toured North America with the raucous and rowdy internationally acclaimed Australian Tap Dance show, Tap Dogs.
From 2010 to 2013, Knights jumped into the dance company world as a principal dancer with Tapestry Dance Company in Austin, Texas under the artistic direction of Acia Gray. During his time there he was awarded the Austin Critic's Table Award for best dance artist in 2011 and 2013. In 2014, he embarked on a self-produced world tour, The Tap Love Tour filming his web series entitled The Interviews featuring celebrated pioneers in the tap dance world. In 2015, he debuted new works in Thomas Marek's show NOLA in Hamburg, Germany.
In 2018, he worked once again with Cirque du Soleil in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum. Later that year, he acted as the Artistic Director for the 2018 Vancouver International Tap Dance Festival. In 2019 Knights finished a two-year community development residency at the Tranzac Club in Toronto hosting the Jazz United Jam, a weekly jazz jam session aimed at connecting live musicians with dancers. He was the 2020 recipient of the Jaqueline Lemieux Prize for outstanding contribution to dance in Canada.
In 2021, in partnership with Anandam Dance Theatre, Travis debuted an original work Ephemeral Artifacts, a 4 channel video installation, with original sound design, lighting and sculptures of bells onto the historic building of Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto. In December 2021, in partnership with Dance Immersion, Travis, along with renowned Tap Dancer Lisa LaTouche, created and directed Legacy Series: Tap Dance Symposium which aimed to re-introduce Tap Dance to the local Black community in Toronto. In 2022, Travis toured 4 international cities with Ephemeral Artifacts, won a Dora Award for Outstanding Performance in Dance Immersion’s Tap Legacy Concert, and became a Slaight Family Music Associate at Soulpepper Theatre Company.
He currently lives in Brampton, Ontario and hosts The Tap Love Tour Podcast, available on spotify, soundcloud and apple podcasts, featuring interviews of a myriad of inspiring tap dance artists.
