Terence Lewis Biography, Relationships, Income Information
Key Highlights
- Terence Lewis Family and Growing up in a Chawl
- His Education and Upbringing
- His Side Hustle of Teaching Dance
- Opinions on Scripted Drama of Dance Reality Shows
Terence Lewis is one of the well-known choreographers, dance judge and a TV personality. He is mainly known for promoting contemporary dance in India. He was one of the judges of Dance in India (2009 – 2012) and India’s Best Dancer (2020–2024).
Terence Lewis’s Family and Upbringing
Terence’s childhood was spent in the 220 square foot Chawl of Mumbai. He used to be very skinny and had difficult time in gaining weight because of his ectomorphic body. Terence was the youngest of all the siblings.
Nearly 13 people used to stay in the chawl which used to have 8 siblings (brothers and sisters), Terence’s mother and father, his paternal grandparents and even his uncle.
Terence reveals that his father was a large-hearted and generous man who never held grudges against relatives even on the occasions when the relationships with them was going through a tough phase. Terence opines this father got his uncle’s and children of others to get married and settled down.
Source : – Youtube
Terence was born in a Mangalorean Catholic family. His father and mother name are Xavier Lewis and Teresa Lewis respectively. Terence opined that his family wasn’t strong financially but had good value systems.
Source : – Pinkvilla
Terence lewis did his schooling from St. Teresa’s Bandra, the same school in which Javed Jaffri also studied.
Terence opines that he including his younger four siblings were privilieged with certain amount of good looks but his mother always emphasized them to not focus too much on the looks but to develop skills, become more intelligent. Her mother told her looks can fluctuate and may eventually fade away but things like intelligence, skills and work are more substantial.
While being raised, Terence was instilled that Life is Unfair but due diligence of daily hard work and discipline is absolutely necessary and one day success does arrive eventually.
Terence’s family was against him entering the dance industry. When Prahaj Nihalani’s wife asked his parents to allow Terence to work in this film industry, his parents refused to give permission. His parents always told Terence to focus on study because they beleived this profession related to singing and dancing belongs to rich people.
Education
Terence admits that he was a bright student. He pursued micro biology till third year and left it. After that he did a 3 year hotel management course where he was one of the toppers as per his own revelation. For side hustle, he used to go home to home to teach dance.
It may be interesting to note that Terence himself did not took any formal dance training. By giving dance tuitions, he was able to pay his college fees.
He revealed that his side hustle of dance lessons was bringing him more money than the offer (flight person) presented to him in the 3rd year of campus placement.
He reveals that there were opportunities for him in acting also but he didn’t pursued them as he believed they weren’t a stable job. Financial stability was very important for him.
He has two graduate degrees in Psychology and Sociology.
Terence received scholarship for germany to learn contemporary dance. Terence opines that his skillset went next level after that scholarship.
Career as a Dance Teacher
He took a leap of faith and convinced his parents to allow him to be a dance teacher. His parents although agreed to support him, warned him also that they won’t be able to provide any guidance to him in this field.
Terence reveals that when he opened a studio, he didn’t got any clients for some time.
His father felt very bad when he saw Terence’s house in a bad condition. Seeing his father felt that way, Terence made a vow with himself that he will work very hard to earn money and make his name. He recalls that his youthful years flew very quickly and he sacrificed going out, partying, and other activities so that he could work and work only. His sole motive at that time was to work and earn money.
He did got some modelling offers also after completing his graduation.
Crazy Fan moment: – Terence Lewis Fan crazy moment when a general manager at the airport praised him and asked for a photo. When Terence countered that he may miss the flight, the manager responded that he wont let the flight take off until he clicks a photo with Terence.
By the way, Terence also worked as a fitness trainer in 1998. He worked for Madhuri Dixit to help her lose weight.
Replaced with a star kid: – Terence reveals that he was about to be casted in a movie which was related to dance. Everything was done and Terence was desperately looking to start working however the director took a U turn and informed him that he is replacing Terence with a star kid. While Terence didn’t named the actor, people in the comment section suggested that it was likely Abhishek Bacchan who was casted in the movie Naach (2004).
Terence reveals that after facing rejections for acting roles, he focussed on dance classes as financial stability was his priority at that time. He opines that now he is financially well stable, he would certainly want to give a try to acting.
On how he became the judge of dance reality show : – Terence reveals that many of the choreographers didn’t take up the role of judge due to physicality demand of the dance teacher’s job. Therefore, the organizers of the reality show approached emerging choreographers like Terence. They however felt that Terence doesn’t have too many films under his portfolio as a choreographer and neither he has assisted any one. In order to judge Terence’s talent, the organizers asked Terence to show his portfolio work. The creative director was impressed with his work and thats how Terence got to become the judge on the dance reality show.
Intial Salary from Dance India Dance: – Terence reveals that he was paid lesser than the make up and hair artists of today at that time as he wasn’t an established choreographer like Remo D Souza or Geeta Kapur.
Terence opines that he went straight from being a dance teacher to a choreographer. His first choreographer project was Lagaan but in a little capacity only.
Scripted Drama
Terence Lewis has been critical of the audience for showing viewership interests in watching scripted drama. Terence opines that some of the moments (except performance evaluation and judgement) on the show are scripted in order to get the viewership. Terence opines that when the creative director asked her to perform such acts, he wouldn’t thought that it would eb liked by the viewers but the director showed him that the scripted drama such as of him giving gifts to the audiences brought maximum spike in viewership. And Terence blames the audience for that.
Relationships
Terence Lewis has remain unmarried till now, however his name has been linked to Sayantani Ghosh from the dance reality show Nach Baliye.
