Terence Lewis, a choreographer, gave a powerful account of how an unexpected teaching opportunity changed his life on I.I.M.U.N.‘s Before I Became Me podcast, which is hosted by Rishabh Shah. At that time, Lewis didn’t even consider dance to be a viable career.

“Growing up, I thought nothing would happen from dance; I was teaching maths, science, and history for 200 rupees. The only purpose of dancing was to earn extra pocket money. When the mother of one of my students asked me to come teach dance for an hour every week on the weekends, everything changed for me. She said she could gather a group of eight students and offered me 500 rupees. I saw 500 for eight students plus the 200 I was earning from the tuition for science and math as a win-win. After a month, I realized that the woman meant 500 for each child, for a total of 4000,” said the dance maestro.

Terence added, “Once I got that 4000, I was stunned. I had never seen so much money together. I realized how easily it comes to me, and I need to take advantage of this. I therefore picked up as many dance-related books as I could at Churchgate Station. Ballet, jazz, and other styles. I used those books to create a year-long syllabus, which is essentially what inspired me. I learned everything on the job and had no formal training at all”.

He concluded by sharing one of the most inspirational tales that led to the establishment of one of the most prestigious dance schools in India.

Priyanka Dutta