"Classical trained dancers do not have a voice of their own", says Terence Lewis

His happy feet never stop dancing. His elegant motion defines every rhythm of music. His dance is an expression of the inexpressible language of the soul. Dancer and choreographer TERENCE LEWIS talks to DHRITHI SUDHAKAR GULVADI about his desire to become an actor, the significance of dance beyond religion and culture and more…

Choreographers have turned into filmmakers, what makes you to distance yourself from the realm of filmmaking?

Firstly, to each his own. Secondly, I wanted to be a dancer first and a teacher, simply because I wanted to be in front of the camera. I didn’t want to be behind the camera. As a choreographer I have realized that this never made me so happy because I was behind the camera and I wanted to perform in front of the camera. I have always been a performer since the age of 6. To answer your question, I love the role of a judge that I am playing. My next step is basically to get into films as an actor because I love being in front of the camera and not behind the camera.

Yes, I would definitely wear a hat which is connected to the media world and connected to films, but I want to be in front of the camera and not behind the camera. I have always been an artist and for me, it’s my job and I am in so much love with my dance, theatres and the aspects of drama which really is the reason why I prefer being in that space and in front of the camera.

I have trained as an actor in school, in college and I have done my acting workshops in various parts of the world. I am happy to dance because dance gave me bread and butter and more, but now it’s time to move on because I know that I have a fabulous career in dance and I have a fabulous career in judging. I think it’s time to do more of other things that I wanted to do but couldn’t do because of lack of time, lack of resources and lack of opportunity.

Indian classical dances have taken a back seat due to the invasion of western dance culture. Comment.

This statement is especially erroneous when it comes to me because I am a great lover of Indian classical dance. Basically, it’s the love of dance, it doesn’t matter what kind of style you do because dance is dance. As music has no religion or culture similarly dance does not have any religion or culture, it belongs to everybody. When I was judging SYTCD India, there was a girl named Kalpita Kachroo who was a beautiful classical dancer and the best thing about her was that she was versatile. She could do everything and she could do everything that the other girls could do too.

Classical dancers are not finding ways of expressing themselves differently. If one is going to show me Radha Krishna story, then I am not interested because I have already seen that all my life. If one is going to show me a modern day Radha and a modern day Krishna, I am very interested. The biggest problem with classical trained dancers is that they do not have a voice of their own. They are talking about culture and tradition, but what about you? You are also a part of culture, you are also very much contributing to the culture.

Where is your voice? It is the voice of the past 2000 years. We need your voice. In countries abroad, when they have shows; Ballet doesn’t strike much. It is people who have a voice of their own and after getting the trained in Ballet or Jazz or whatever style they do, they find an expression of their own and that is what dance is supposed to do. This is lacking in our country because we have a Guru Shishya tradition which says that you don’t have a voice of your own and what I teach you is the ultimate.

The biggest drawback of any classical dancer is that they get stuck because they’ve never been told to do it “your way”; it has always been “my way”. So, the individuality is lost, and in dance we want to see the individual expression. That is missing. This is where dancers get stuck because they know only a few things. They haven’t been able to explore themselves.

What changes would you like to see in Indian dances?

Firstly, they need to become more creative which means they need to do more creative workshops and explore what they have learned. This is not for non dancers. I wouldn’t recommend for people who are not trained. Many times people jump the gun. They do not train, they just want to go for creative process and they turn out to be ridiculous. One needs to get trained and get the basics perfected in classical dance or any form of classical training.

Once that is sorted then begins the next phase that is creativity. How are you going to explore what you have learned to express yourself in different ways and there are various tools for that, which is called choreology and research. This is what is not taught. What happens with Indian classical dancing is like this- I give you a fish and everyday you’ll come back to me again asking for a fish but if I teach you how to fish it then you won’t come back to me because you’ll do it on your own.

This is lacking in our culture. We are emotional and we do not allow independence. We are spoon-fed. So, as a culture we do not allow individuality.

What kind of films have you been approached for?

I have been approached in the last 2 or 3 years. I am handled by an agency named Kwan. They have a huge tank of directors and movie makers. They suggested my name to almost everybody under their list, but the kind of films that I was given was something that I was not interested in doing, simply because it was too mundane. I love commercial films, but I needed films that are intelligent or it needs to talk something that the world doesn’t know already and it needs to talk about current issues.

A lot of films that I had been approached for I think the role were not suitable or not substantial. Many times I felt that the film was too hackneyed done to death and not interesting at all. I want to do good films. I want to do good scripts and I don’t care if I don’t get paid because I am not here to make money or to have more films, I am here to enjoy the profession of acting. That is why I want to pick up good films which are interesting.

Having said that, finally I think your point where I’d realize that I would rather write my own story or good story, but I am not a good director and I don’t want to explore that side of me and I don’t want to direct at least for the next 10 years. I want to explore writing a story which appeals to me. I think that would be a story which really needs to be told and it would be a fabulous story which has dance in the background and not in the foreground. The foreground is basically the story of a father and daughter and that’s the story which I’ve written. A very young talented director has been already on board. We are looking forward for 2016-2017 to be a good start.

People perceive dancers as dancers and not as actors. Comment.

Absolutely! Most dancers are actors because when you dance you do perform; you do use your expressions. I do not see them as a skeptic. Hrithik Roshan is a dancer and Prabhudeva is a dancer too. Most of the actresses like Vyjayanthimala, Sridevi, Hema Malini, Rekha have all been dancers and that has really helped them to act.

Of course, if you ask me what kind of role suits me? I would definitely not do the young college guy role (chuckles). I do not connect with that because you need to be a certain age or a certain type for that role, so I would pick up a role that requires certain maturity wherein I can play my age and be comfortable with it.