You might have seen RI's dancing security guard on TikTok. Here's his story.
This is the story as Danny Feliz, better known as Tropicana Danny, tells it.
He was on break from his security guard job at Providence Place mall when he noticed a group of kids starting to get a little rowdy. They weren’t listening to him, so he switched tactics.
He challenged them to a dance-off. If he won, they had to listen and leave for the night.
“They picked this song, I put my phone down right there on the floor, and then I basically made my first video,” he said. “I hit a flip and everyone was shocked.”
He wasn’t the only one recording. Some of the kids who were there posted it on TikTok, and when he came into work the next day, "kids were coming up to me like, aren’t you that guy from TikTok? The security guy who does flips?”
At first, he was trying to get the video taken down, worried it would get him in trouble at work. Then, he said he was written up, so he decided, having already lost that battle, to make a TikTok account and post the video himself.
The 18-second video racked up over 1 million views overnight.
And then he was Tropicana Danny, The Dancing Security Guard.
How popular is Tropicana Danny?
That was in February. Today, he has more than 234,000 followers on TikTok and another 35,000 followers on Instagram.
He no longer works at Providence Place, as making dance videos while in uniform was a friction point, according to Feliz. He had an opportunity to work with influencers that required him to travel out of state, which ultimately led to him parting ways with the mall.
“I had a choice to stop dancing or continue dancing,” Feliz said. “So, basically, I was like, you know what, this is my chance. ... I ended up taking the risk and kept dancing.”
(Providence Place didn’t return a request for comment on this story.)
He started touring malls up and down the East Coast, going to places like Florida and New Jersey to perform. But in the end, he came back to Providence, in part because it’s home.
What is Tropicana Danny’s story?
Feliz grew up on the South Side of Providence, in a house full of siblings. His mom loved to dance, so he did, too, he said.
His first love, though, was cars. He built an orange one from scratch during his time at the Providence Career & Technical Academy, and after graduation he moved to Florida with his family, where he put those classic orange-themed plates on the car. That’s where the nickname Tropicana Danny comes from, he said.
But Florida wasn’t really where he wanted to be.
“I actually wanted to live in New York City,” he said. “I ended up being a street performer. I had my own place, but eventually I became homeless. It was what it was. I slept on trains ... and performed in Times Square. You know, the people who flip over everyone.”
“I told myself, you know, this is where I want to be,” Feliz said. “That type of position would definitely build some type of character, and especially in the long run, if I was to ever end up homeless or something like that, I'd be more thankful and happy for what I have right in front of me.”
But when the pandemic hit, Times Square emptied and he moved back down to Florida. He attended a technical college with scholarship money, but he didn’t have enough to also cover housing, so he said he ended up living in his car. For 10 months, he said, he didn’t talk to anyone. When it became too much financially, he left school, headed back north, and eventually took that job at Providence Place, where Tropicana Danny's story began.
“It was more of a blessing than a bad thing, because it made me who I am today,” he said. “It made me able to connect with not only kids, but even grown-ups. There’s a lot of people who reach out thanking me for the videos that I make. Only the other day, a lady who had a brain tumor and just had surgery ... said watching my videos makes her day and makes her laugh. That makes me feel good.”
What it’s been like since he’s gone viral
Since that first video went viral, Feliz has found his groove.
As it turns out, it wasn’t malls that made him so popular – he’s currently facing a charge of resisting arrest after dancing at the Warwick Mall and is dancing far less at Providence Place – it was the kids.
“He clearly has a huge passion for young kids, and it shows,” said Mike Bettencourt, owner of Atrium on Main in Pawtucket, who has partnered with Feliz on some projects. “There’s a reason why he has followers on social media. That doesn’t happen by chance. It’s the energy he gives and the message he pushes out. It’s just very inspiring."
Kids in that notoriously tough pre-teen and teenage phase love him and started flooding his videos with requests to tell them the next place he was going to dance. Then, they started asking him to come to their schools. Over the last few months, he’s started an unofficial, unpaid tour of area schools. He’s flipped at the East Providence High School pep rally, danced with the mascot at Ricci Middle School in North Providence, and flipped over Principal Arthur Baraf at Providence's Met High School, just to name a few.
Baraf invited Feliz to Met for a special pre-Thanksgiving meal after his daughter, who attends East Providence High, told him about Tropicana Danny.
“Tropicana Danny participated, first by telling his story – a relatable autobiography about pursuing his passions, overcoming the struggles of homelessness, and staying away from drugs and alcohol. It was great,” Baraf said in an email. “And then he started dancing, having students help film on his phone (as well as his brother who was filming) and involving students and staff with the dance choreography. The students were filled with excitement and engagement. After the talking and dancing, and a thankfulness circle that Danny participated in, we shared this special meal as a community. Danny ate with us and students got his autograph and took selfies with him. A student even had him sign her arm in sharpie. He’s a real celebrity!”
The music he plays in school is a different, more kid-friendly version than what he posts on his social media channels.
As Feliz becomes a celebrity with Rhode Island’s kids, he’s hoping to put that influence to good use, encouraging them to go to school, connect to the school resource officers, find safe places, and find confidence. He has ideas about his appearances becoming a reward for good attendance, study hall groups, and teaching dance classes at places like Atrium on Main.
“We’re trying to get the attendance up. I’m trying to make a difference,” he said. “I don’t want to be the TikTok guy or the Instagram guy. I’m trying to change the way kids go about things. … I talk to them, and I try to make a difference.”
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Meet 'Tropicana Danny' the dancing security guard from Providence going viral
