DID is a competition between contestants!: Terence Lewis

His personal style and his contemporary dance style both makes Terence Lewis one of his kind! Just when people thought dance meant Bollywood jhatkas, Terence introduced us to a very novel dance form -contemporary, which no one had attempted before. He confesses having had a tough time to make people believe in his ideas and accept his dance style. But better late than never and especially after Dance India Dance season 1, Lewis has been widely accepted. While he didn’t win the first season, two of the final four contestants were from his team! Five films old, Terence says his style is gaining popularity with each passing day. An extremely emotional person, Terence is all geared up to beat his co-mentors, this time around. He spoke to TellyChakkar about what can be expected from his ‘Terence ki toli’, his dance form and his journey so far. Since Remo’s Salman won the first season, you must be trying hard to make it happen for your team, this time around? Honestly, the competition is between the contestants. I am interested in dance and presenting its many forms. Who wins at the end is immaterial because it purely depends upon the kind of contestants we have, their star presence and the one who can take it forward. I was happy last season too when two of the final four were my contestants. I knew I had a talented team. People simply loved Alisha and Jai Kumar Nair and were disappointed when they didn’t win. After watching the first season, people have told me how their opinions have changed about dance as a profession. They could see all that talent and hard work the dancers had put in, in the show. They too have now started supporting their children to make their dreams of becoming a dancer come true. Dancing as a profession has been widely accepted now. I think that is what we wanted to achieve and we have succeeded in our attempt. So what about the whole idea of having a competition? The competition is just to keep the viewers entertained and involved in the show. Having said this, it does feel bad when your contestant gets evicted because that only means one less opportunity to showcase your dancing style and expertise. My contestants are like my body through whom I can present my passion. Will a girl win this time? Oh! Please pray to God that one of my girls win this time. Two of the girls on the show are from my academy. They passed out two years ago. They came to me asking if they could participate and I told them they will have to do it on their own merit and they just couldn’t be in my team just like that. Actually 10 girls from my dance academy auditioned and I made it clear to the two co-judges that I won’t be judging them and I would completely support their decisions. But it certainly made me feel proud when Remo requested me to let him take my students. How has life changed post-DID? It has definitely made a difference. Earlier I was more into corporate shows. I don’t do too many films and I have done only five so far – Lagaan, Jhankar Beats, Shikhar, What’s your Rashee, Naach. The show has definitely put me in the limelight, people always knew who I was, but this show has given me a new lease altogether. Why don’t we see much of your style in Bollywood? See if a project doesn’t excite me I won’t be able to give it my whole, which would affect the end result. I don’t want to do something for money but something people will remember me for. I refused Ram Gopal Varma’s Road because I didn’t like the song. He was aghast and I told him that I wasn’t being offensive but it was just that the song wasn’t exciting enough for me to do justice to it. Quality suffers if you are doing something just for the money and not because your heart is into it. If it was about my survival, I would have taken up everything that came my way! You are proud of Naach? I am absolutely proud of Naach because it was almost my story. Contemporary isn’t a common dance form. How difficult was it for you to make a mark during the initial years? It was extremely difficult. The biggest hiccup was that you need a certain level of training to attempt contemporary. We don’t have such dancers here. The beauty of contemporary dancing is you have to tell a story through your body and not facial expressions! Contemporary dance is all about emotions. I am very sensitive and touchy about certain things in life. My parents may not be supportive of my profession but they definitely support me for the kind of person I am. Tell us about your diet as a dancer? I am born Christian so I can practically eat everything that walks. But I turned vegetarian seven years ago. I think if somebody has to die so that you can survive and satiate your desire, then it’s too much to ask for. Also one has to understand how it feels after you have had something. You shouldn’t feel lethargic after consuming your meal as food is meant to give you energy. If it makes you feel sleepy and bloated then you are not having the right kind of food. My philosophy is to eat to live and not the other way round. Having said that there are many dance forms that we haven’t been able to adopt? Why? My teacher told me dancing is an unnatural activity. By default human beings are born to be lazy. We do something either out of habit or out of need. Legs are meant to walk, hop, skip, and jump and not to pull it up or stretch. Now if you want to pull it right upto your face or contort it, you will need to work very hard as it’s not natural. We have to train ourselves very hard but by nature we want things to come easy. Also people are making easy money by managing with whatever mediocre dancing talent they showcase so why bother to enhance and improve it. Fortunately, Dance India Dance happened and people now understand the importance of being trained. What next in the pipeline? I am choreographing for Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish. He offered me after watching my style of dancing in DID. He wanted a contemporary dance form in the film.