Terence Lewis is of Indian origin and descent. He got his Anglo-Indian name from his forefathers who were originally Hindus and converted to Christianity during the Portuguese colonisation of Goa-India. He studied different dance and body disciplines of his own culture such as Indian folk dance, Kathak, and Yoga. In addition, he has studied with various contemporary and modern dance teachers of international repute for several years before he built a strong body of work that is predominantly contemporary yet has a strong influence on his rich indigenous culture!
In 2003 he was a participant of the ImPulsTanz danceWEB scholarship in Vienna. On his return, he established his own company as the artistic director and founder of the TLCDC that staged and toured several productions such as Surkh, Out of the Box, After 8, and more recently Scrambled Eggs or Sunny Side Up. In 2005 he established the Terence Lewis Academy – a premier training school, offering partly funded scholarships for talented young dancers in the country to train professionally in contemporary dance incorporating both Indian and Western dance disciplines! After ten years as a choreographer for Bollywood Films, and also choreographing for the German film Hexe Lilli quite accidentally, he quit the Film Industry in 2009 and was asked to be on the Jury of several TV shows such as Dance India Dance and India’s Best Dancer. April 2015 marked the year where he established and simultaneously curated the very first Contemporary Dance Festival in Mumbai called Jugnee (Firefly) in association with ImPulsTanz! A popular contemporary dance icon in his own country today, Terence Lewis is a part of several national discussion platforms for the changing trends in modern and contemporary dance in India.
Terence Lewis was conferred the Honorary Doctorate in Performing Arts and Dance by the National American University in the Alliance with National Institutes of Education and Research, Asia in the year 2018. He has been 3 times Guinness World Record Winner: he conducted the largest Bollywood Dance Class in the world (2010), the largest Indo-Contemporary Dance Class (2011) and the largest Bollywood Dance Class in the world, breaking his own records (2012). Terence Lewis and his dance company are impaneled members of ICCR (Indian Council for Cultural Relations) and were selected to represent the country for a European Tour in 2022 in conjunction with the Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav Campaign.
Lewis’s passion and dedication to teaching his technique and mentoring young artists to reach their highest potential creatively by working holistically with them makes him a teacher of fine repute and a force to reckon with. In 2024, Terence Lewis and Mahrukh Dumasia were commissioned to create a contemporary dance piece for Aviva Studios, Factory International Manchester which had its world premiere in May 2024 and was critically acclaimed by the international press.
28.06.2024
