Daniel was born in Los Angeles. During his career he has taught, worked and ranked alongside musicians and dancers such as
Shabba Doo,
Popin' Pete and
the Electric Boogaloos. Daniel first performed "the backslide", a physically complicated dance technique (originally performed by the dance group the Lockers), now known as the "
moonwalk", on British television during a performance of Shalamar's "
A Night to Remember" on
Top of the Pops. The song was a hit in 1982, almost a year before
Michael Jackson moonwalked on the
Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever television broadcast; he was a fan of
Soul Train – on which Jeffrey Daniel had been a back-up dancer. According to Jackson's sister
La Toya, Jackson was a fan of Daniel's dancing and sought him out. He soon met, hired and learned from Daniel. Daniel gives credit to a man that inspired him, the original dance "locker"
Don Campbell, one of the earliest
Soul Train dancers. He also gives praise to Cleveland Moses Jr. his partner on
Soul Train and to Tyrone Proctor who was the premier "waack" dancer who taught Daniel the style of dance known as "
waacking". It was on
Soul Train whilst doing a routine dressed in black that Daniel and Geron 'Caszper' Candidate and Derek 'Cooley' Jackson/Jaxson first performed the moonwalk on U.S. television.
Shalamar Daniel and his
Soul Train dance partner
Jody Watley, along with
Howard Hewett, became the soul funk group
Shalamar who had hit songs such as "
A Night to Remember", "
The Second Time Around", "
I Can Make You Feel Good", "
Friends", "
Make that Move", "
Take That to the Bank", "
There It Is" and "
I Owe You One". During the 1980s, Daniel was often seen in the London club scene with the likes of
Bananarama,
Wham! and
Culture Club. In 1983, after six years as a group, Shalamar performed at London's
Wembley Arena and went their separate ways. Soon after, Daniel took on the role of '
Electra' in
Andrew Lloyd Webber's new
West End musical
Starlight Express which involved wild costumes with complex choreography on roller skates. Also in 1984, Daniel appeared in the
Paul McCartney film
Give My Regards to Broad Street displaying his signature robotic or marionette-like dancing style (with McCartney, his wife
Linda McCartney and members of the band
Toto made up as marionettes) to the
Wings hit, "
Silly Love Songs". First broadcast on the UK's
Channel 4 on April 12, 1985, Daniel hosted
620 Soul Train, a British version of
Soul Train which he produced with
Don Cornelius. The groundbreaking show (for the UK) ran for 10 episodes and featured invited studio dancers with live studio guest artists, along with clips from the US version and the occasional music video and guest DJs such as
Pete Tong and
Tony Blackburn. It was highly regarded as essential viewing for soul and dance music fans because otherwise there was very little outlet for the music on the other pop/rock orientated UK TV stations at the time. The show was also one of the first TV research jobs for UK media broadcaster and interviewer
Jonathan Ross before his own show started on
Channel 4 in 1987.
Work with Michael Jackson By 1987, Daniel was working with
Michael Jackson who had always been a fan of Daniel's dance style since watching him on
Soul Train in the 1970s. He joined
Nigerian Idol as a judge in 2010 for three seasons and has been performing live shows with a reformed Shalamar since 2002. The current Shalamar lineup is Daniel,
Howard Hewett and
Carolyn Griffey. They continue performing as a group and toured in 2017 across the UK. ==Personal life==