From Center Stage to Behind the Camera: An Interview with Sean Lew
Written by Ella Southard and Chantel Kienitz
Photo by Chad Brady Photography (@cbradyphotography)
Sean Lew is a 19 year old professional dancer, choreographer, director, actor, and producer. Possibly most known for his appearance on two seasons of NBC’s “World of Dance”, and being in music videos for big names such as Justin Bieber, Megan Trainor, Sia, and Todrick Hall, Lew is venturing into the world of film. Unfiltered Magazine sat down (zoomed) to speak on Lew’s new dance film: “II: An Unspoken Narrative”.
Sean immediately cites his family as the main inspiration that has held constant throughout his life and his career. He recalls memories of attending his sisters’ dance competitions, when he would rush home afterward to recreate their dance moves from memory, “four times worse but with four times more passion.” His mother would purposely leave him at preschool for as long as possible because of the sheer amount of music that Sean would play once he got home. He also commends his family’s work ethic as a huge point of inspiration for him, with the amount of sacrifices they have made to get him to this point. Sean says that he makes sure, every day, that he does not take their love and support for granted.
Growing up, Sean says that his dream in life was to become a lead in a movie or a tv show, and looking back on that aspiration, he realized “well, I haven’t done that yet”, and decided that there would be no more blaming this on lack of time or lack of opportunities. He spoke with his sisters on concepts and started writing up ideas for the film, telling us, “If no one was going to cast me in a movie, I will do it myself.”
The concept that originally sparked the idea for the short film was the Unspoken Words dance video he had uploaded on YouTube with his long-term dance partner, Kaycee Rice. It was the first dance where he had utilized dance to express a story and meaningful theme through the moves, and the overwhelmingly positive reaction to this video surprised him. People were giving it a different kind of praise than Sean was used to; they were telling him the video moved them, made them think differently after watching, or made them cry. The dance had the power to move people, and Sean had now discovered how he could use dance to paint a narrative.
Photo courtesy of Sean Lew
Before the filming of the video, Sean had told Kaycee that he wanted to continue the storyline from that dance into other videos and choreography moving forward, so he began to plan and lay out what exactly that would look like. When he realized this was going to be something that required a lot of time and money, he set his eyes to the idea of a full-length movie to fully express everything he wanted to say from the moment they released Unspoken Words. “That was the birth of the storyline and the film itself”, says Sean.
When asked which dance sequence or scene was his favorite, he said, “That’s like having eight kids in the family and asking who’s my favorite child,” Sean jokes, but goes on to express how near to his heart every single sequence has been, but in different ways. He discusses the effort to make every scene discernable, in tone and in design, instead of pushing the same idea with every new dance. He explains that the process of each scene is a culmination of highs and lows on set, going through an equipment break-in, to a thunderstorm, to a dancer getting injured, there were things going wrong left and right. In the end, though, Sean expresses that the true moments of expression came out of those defeats.
“Everything is based on a life experience. Everything.” Sean describes the idea that he would never create something like this film without having experienced it firsthand. He wants to be able to accurately portray these feelings and emotions through his dance rather than give people a movie that he has no person say in. He tells us that this entire film is his life, speaking at specific times in his life throughout the different scenes. “Every scene has been like a pure life experience for me.” This gives him the ability to show his real emotions throughout his own acting, letting the reality of the moment guide him in the dance.
One of the scenes where the dancers had to channel their energy into a scream, Sean told them to scream with him, out loud, to allow the camera to pick up on the raw emotion. He did this with them, so that they would not have to fear feeling uncomfortable, and they all had a session of shrieking together. “When you have people explain stories of your own, you have to make them feel like they are part of your experience and you can’t do that without being vulnerable with them.” He goes further, saying that he wants the dancers to be able to portray these emotions without having to think too hard about it, instead making them really feel the moment.
One of the most notable motifs in “II: An Unspoken Narrative”, were the simple drawings that were picked up off an easel at the end of each dance scene, depicting a still image from the choreography. Lew took these drawings from the easel into the dark where an overarching question about the theme of the dance scene was revealed in invisible ink. When asked about the origin and significance of these drawings, Lew said, “the idea was to take the picture and put it in front of the actual scene when we made it come to life…the drawings were actually drawn years before we decided to shoot it and it was just me sketching like ‘alright this is how I want it to look like’”.
Photo courtesy of Sean Lew
The questions on drawings do not remain unanswered; in the final scene of the film, the answers appear on the backdrop of the scene drawings, which are now displaying an abstract portrayal of Sean and his partner Kaycee. Lew said that the answers to the questions actually took a long time to figure out. “You kinda have to answer questions that aren’t so specific, where no one feels judged, no one feels pressured, no one feels obligated to see it from a different side. There’s always going to be two sides to an argument, so those answers were purely coming from how I was able to see my bad sides as a good thing”, Lew said when asked about the process to come up with these sincere aphorisms.
The isolating nature of the Covid-19 pandemic has left many creatives feeling uninspired and self-restricted. Despite releasing a film that radiates energy of an actively creative mind, Sean, just like all creatives, is still figuring out ways to stay inspired. One piece of advice he does have however, is to reach out to people. “You have to reach out to anyone who inspires you...people are what gives you longevity in life,” Sean expresses, “you have to rely on people so that way you have something to work for, something to fight for, and something to love for”.
In one of the scenes, “Hopes and Doubts'', two rows of dancers are constrained by cloth ropes; the back row is afraid of the constraints and believes that they can not break free, while the front row uses them to their advantage. Under the interpretation that the ropes symbolize self-inflicted constraints, Lew said that one thing that acts as a constraint for humans, including himself, is ego. “When you let that [ego] go, you end up just doing it for the right reasons, as opposed to doing it for other people”. Sean said he has to remind himself that when he posts on social media it’s because he loves his content, not solely to receive praise and validation from others. A healthy ego can either be used to believe in yourself, or it can become a dangerous limitation to your ambitions.
Photo courtesy of Sean Lew
In the last scene, the compellingly beautiful mantra “Where There Is Love, There Is Life” is revealed. Lew said that the origin of this particular phrase was from his Instagram bio from years ago where it said, “where there is...there is”. Lew went on to explain that he got the complete phrase from someone at an event a while back. “I live my whole life based on that phrase...if you love what you do, and you love the people you are with, and you love just anything in general, that becomes your reason to life...so when you really think about that phrase, and how you interpret into your own life, it almost answers every doubtful question you have, where you take a step back, and you are like, ‘are you doing it for yourself?’ or ‘are you doing this for someone else?’”. Sean goes on to point out that if you are doing something for yourself, consequently, you truly love it, and that is where life will reside.
“Think about it,” Lew says when asked to communicate one, all-encompassing theme of the film. “What I mean by that is like if you go through something that you're not pleased with or that you don’t like, or see someone that you don’t like...take a step back and think about why you feel that way, and then change your perspective.” Sean explains that it is extremely important to think of circumstances from several perspectives; not only keep them in balance, but to lead with love throughout your life.
When asked about future projects, Lew said he is really looking forward to more acting and directing opportunities, as well as his upcoming collection announcement with his sisters in April. Most importantly, though, Sean wants creativity to flow naturally, so he doesn’t want to put a timeline on anything. That being said, be on the lookout for all of Sean’s next creative endeavors!