Why Miami City Ballet Principal Alexander Peters Thinks You Should Start Painting

In addition to taking dance classes as a kid, Alexander Peters also had regular piano lessons and drawing, painting and pottery classes. Of course, those extracurriculars took a backseat when he began seriously training in ballet as a teenager.

But about a year and a half ago, his husband enrolled in school in Philadelphia, and Peters, now a principal at Miami City Ballet, began painting again just to pass the time alone. “I had no clue how passionate I would become, but now I feel an insatiable need to paint almost every day,” he says.

He recently filmed himself in his studio for Dance Magazine, sharing a bit about his creative process—and explaining why he thinks other dancers would benefit from exploring other aspects of their creativity, too.