Terence Lewis

He was born as the youngest child in a large, poor family. Growing up with seven older siblings taught him patience, determination and understanding which helped him become the sensitive and efficient mentor he is to numerous dance students.

Terrence Lewis was born on April 10, 1975, as the youngest and eighth child of Xavier Lewis and Teresa Lewis. He was born and brought up in Mumbai.

He studied at St Theresa School, Mumbai. He was an academically brilliant student who scored straight A’s. He discovered his love for dance when mentored by his first dance teacher, Ms. Pervez Shetty who taught him the basics in Jazz and Ballet.

He struggled to continue dance training after his schooling due to lack of financial resources. But his philosophy--'ATM'- Absorb, Try and Master—motivated him to keep going.

He pursued microbiology at the prestigious St. Xavier’s college, Mumbai. Financial constraints compelled him to switch to hotel management and psychology.

Being highly educated opened gates for a financially top-of-the-line job. With this new found security, he set out to realize his dream and started from scratch in the field of dance.

In 2001 he got the chance to choreograph his first dance in an Indian Hindi Movie. It was a ballroom waltz, titled ‘Waltz for a Romance’ in the super hit film ‘Lagaan’.

In 2003, an immensely popular song ‘Dil Ne Tumko’ from the Hindi movie ‘Jhankaar Beats’ was choreographed by him.

Over the next three years, he choreographed popular music videos from films such as John Mathew’s ‘Shikhar’, Ram Gopal Verma’s ‘Nach’, and Adnan Sami’s ‘Kasam’ with Amisha Patel and Stereo Nation's ‘Ishq’ with Koena Mitra and Shaan.

He teaches Bollywood and Indian contemporary dance in ‘Impulstanz Festival’ at Vienna, Austria, and has been doing so since 2007. This international assignment is a great achievement for the Mumbai lad.

He was one of the judges on the dance competition show, ‘Dance India Dance’ which premiered in 2009. It is a dance based reality show where dancers from a variety of styles participate. This show boosted his popularity and made him a household name.

His popularity peaked after his participation as one of the judges in the TV dance reality show ‘Dance India Dance’. His team ‘Terence Ki Toli’ won the show in season 2 under his mentorship.

He holds the Guinness world record for choreographing 1336 people together in a song, the highest number of people choreographed on a single stage.