Sean Lew

***Sean Lew*** (born on November 25, 2001 in Walnut, California, U.S.) is a young multi-talented professional dancer, celebrity choreographer, dance teacher, TV junior chef, actor, editor, creative director, model and a philanthropist, pianist and singer with Chinese and Japanese roots living in Los Angeles, California.

Sean got first time public eye by name at the age of 11, when a video of his jazz funk class routine, choreographed by Miguel Zarate, to the Lady Gaga's performance song "Applause" went viral in 2013 and turned him into an overnight sensation.  A month later he got invited to perform the dance on *The Queen Latifah Show*. He got most fame of public eye by his appearance on season two of *NBC's World of Dance* as Sean & Kaycee in 2018, but within the dance community Sean was already an established star, since he was 14, by holding workshops, hosting and attending conventions, showcasing dances and teaching masterclasses around the world in front of thousands of people. He stated at July 2018 that he doesn't have permanent long-term goals, because everything is so last-minute and he doesn't know where he will be tomorrow. He wants just go the flow and taking chances. He isn't actually seeking for a career as dance teacher, but wants to support groups who having a certain amount of hunger and passion for life and dance, which he had experienced himself in LA when her was younger and wants to (re-)establish it worldwide.

He started dancing when he was able to walk as got inspired by his two older sisters Sarah and Sirris, who used to be competition dancers as well, took his first dance classes when he was four and started competing at the age of five. He got his first professional gig as dancer when he was eight years old on the *Glee* show. He won on Dance-Off Juniors season one episode eight, competed on season one of *NBC's World of Dance* as member of ImmaBEAST and on season two with his partner Kaycee Rice as Sean & Kaycee. After that show Sean turned into a viral social media star as well and attracts with videos millions of views. As dancer he appeared on many TV shows, such as, on *Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards* 2012 and 2014, on *Dancing with the Stars* 2013 and *The X-Factor* together with Carly Rose Sonenclar at the finals in 2012. He was also interview guest concerning dance on *NBC morning news*, *KTLA5 news* and *LA TV - The Zoo*. He appeared on Sia's music short film video "The Greatest" with Maddie Ziegler.

He did commercials for Disney, Canon, Red Bull and Old Navy.

He was also one of the important supporting members to help Janelle and her future husband William "WillDaBeast" Adams (surname did change, it is Ginestra-Adams now) founding IMMA in 2012/2013 and became a member of the crews ImmaBEAST and LilBEAST . Sean is considered as big influence-r on kid dancer talents today - as dancer, choreographer, teacher and mentor. For instance, he taught at THE LAB in West Covina and supported their dancers, who won season two of World of Dance and members became hip-hop world champions as team TLxWC in the Varsity division in 2017.

He started choreographing at the age of ten  and got finally his accolade as established choreographer during World of Dance season two by the judges, who were blown away by his unique, smart, well thought storytelling, and emotional choreography with the age of 16. Shortly afterwards he toured with Brain Friedman through Europe and Asia attending conventions and teaching masterclasses - even he actually hates the term, because he doesn't consider himself a master and is just holding workshops. But he already worked before with Janelle and Will for *Step Up:Year of the Dance* in China. and taught classes in Japan, Mexico and, of course, across the US as member of ImmaBEAST as dancer, teacher and choreographer. His first bigger concept video as choreographer, creative director, editor and dancer was "Life Experiences: Wrong Words" in June 2017, when he worked first time on a project with his current permanent dance partner and best friend Kaycee Rice. But already "Miracle", filmed and edited by "Typo", was an impressive work. Later "Breathe" was an extraordinary creation as well.

Sean stated that he didn't watch often TV or playing video games, but music was an important part of his life right from the beginning. He started choreographing to express himself better by music and dancing. His older sister Serris shot the first videos of his choreography and edited it until he was 12. Soon dance partners like Jordyn Jones or Kenneth San Jose helped him show his choreography. About after a year Sean took over filming and editing. Was a dance partner missing, a little CGI helped and he danced by himself as duet  or got transparent to the background. Later producers like MyTypo or TJ Lewis filmed and edited his choreography with more production effort. His first dance masterclass teaching was filmed when he was 11, to help his sisters school for cherity. And the end of the process Sean dropped out as a brilliant camera man, editor, creative director and choreographer. His work can be watched on his YouTube channel or sometimes Instagram account.

Sean has had already an impressive non-dance related child acting career, but he considered the character roles he got as embarrassing.  Regarding IMDb, he appeared on TV soup series "See Dad Run" (2014), "Sam & Cat" (2014), "Bizaardvark" (2016), "Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn" (2014), on the documentary series "On the Spot Interviews" (2013), "Rachael vs. Guy: Kids Cook-Off" (2016), on home series "Home & Family" (2016), on boulevard series "E! Live from the Red Carpet" - reporting from The Academy Awards 2015 .and several online-network-series like "To the Pointe" (2018). He also appeared on music short film "Todrick Hall: Freaks Like Me" (2014). Sean was even part of the ADR ("Automated" or "Automatic" Dialog Replacement) group of the "Penguins of Madagascar" (2014) and added his voice to the film.

Sean was in public school from pre-school to second class middle school, then he tried homeschool, after then he was going a year in public high-school, and got almost kicked out due his missing time, and finally switched back to online homeschooling. He graduated technically high-school at the age of 15, but he was keep going on in high-school, because his parents as non-native English speakers couldn't support him in certain ways. Sean was in his last year in Nov 2019, but he graduated officially at Jun 19th, 2019 at the California Connections Academy*.*   He finds the balancing between homeschooling, traveling, teaching and dancing really tough.

Sean also dances many years as philanthropist, for causes which matters to him, such as for http://www.idance4acure.org, and supporting to fight childhood cancer. Due his engagement and popularity, and those of many other dancers and choreographers, the funds rises very well, financing research and treatments for children with cancer. Other engagements by him went public are "#prayforpaloma" , https://pedrogtprelief.org  and https://thecameronboycefoundation.org/ . Notable and honorable is his engagement for UN Development Programme with the ambious goal to end poverty at 2030. By watching the video on his channel to the end $20,000 USD donation was send to UNDP power by Live Nation Concerts and Sean. People of his status normally doesn't bother just to look.

An other talent he is known for is cooking. He started cooking when he was seven years old and won on season one episode 13 of "Chopped Junior" $10,000 USD  and been on season two by six episodes of charity fund raising "Rachael Vs. Guy: Kids Cook-Off" . He started cooking to bring other dancers some selfmade lollypops and got invited from their parents to cook in their houses and somehow got on the show by that and because he same kids were later on *Chopped Junior*, he got on this show as well. He loves cooking for family, friends and sometimes the whole company, but, of course, everyone is welcome to join and help preparing, washing and cleaning up. He wanted once to have his own show called "The Dancing Chef", but it seems to change to "The Cooking Dancer" now. What he later really got was starring on *"Sean Lew Approved",* produced by *Kaycee Network,* a sort of restaurant and food critics online show, which was renewed for season two despite the low rates, because the knows the producer pretty well.

Sean plays piano since he was six years old. Her won 2nd place at the Music Teachers Association of California when he was eight years old.   Sean is also noticed as good singer and sound editor. He started singing to support his friend Tate McRae,  who is an excellent singer, but he didn't make it public for a long time. He published three music videos by covering "this town" by Niall Horan, "Youth ft. (Kahlid)" by Shawn Mendes and "Be Alright" by Dean Lewis.

He got the nickname "Lewser" by his family, who said it as a joke, but made later a family merchandise by that.  The brand is owned by his sisters Serris and Sarah - fashion designer and computer engineer - and himself and offers a small clothing line.

His skills as dancer are not less impressive. He started dancing with his older siblings Sarris and Sarah at Mather Dance Studio at the age of four and became a member of Mather Dance company. He got at the beginning most of his technical training there - ballet, contemporary, jazz, tap, lyrical and hip-hop. He started with tap, then hip-hop and then he was trained within 4-5 years in ballet. He performed his first hip-hop dance on stage even before had a class. Most impressive, he learned ball room dancing as well and won with his partner "Sia" at the age of 8 or 9 two championships with the standards Rumba, Samba, Jive, ChaCha and Paso Nova in Latin dancing.  Due his work as dancing far from the dance community, he took also a lot of dance industrial classes in LA with some of the most influential and established choreographers. He got first time on The Pulse convention when he was eight years old, and was made to Pulse Protegè without even knowing what is this all about or competing for it, just by the attention of the choreographers, his self-expression in the forefront and his daring clothing. Finally got later on The Pulse on Tour in 2013 at the age of 12 as Elite Protégé and graduated as Elite Alumnus in 2014. Two years before, he met his friend and mentor those days William "WillDaBEAST" Adams, who became later to a kind of dance father or big brother for Sean and Sean supported him and his future wife Janelle Ginestra(-Adams) founding ImmaBEAST, by dancing on his videos, finding supporters and even cooking. In these days one of the most important dance industry companies in the world. Sean mixed more and more other influences to his style of dancing. NEYO stated at NBC's World of Dance season two to him: *"I feel I can watch someone else do your choreography and go 'Yeah, that's Sean.'"*

Sean also learned the classics beyond mainstream dancing. Especially Galen Hooks, Tessandra Chavez and Nika Kjun give him frequently retro approaches. Galen let Sean perform "The West Side Story" like a Broadway veteran, hard rock like the 80's (which drives the girls in classes crazy by this animal) and jazz funk. Nika let Sean feel the 70's by "Greace",  funk and urban dance. Or soft rock by Tessandra  His new partner Kaycee Rice stated in NBC's World of Dance season two: "He is literally good at everything. He is basically like a dance genius." His strongest suit is hip-hop. Sean's fingerprint of dancing can be described as the "Master of 1,001 Figures with Hands and Legs", making waves with his body and the most fierce accentuation of dancers of the younger generation. Giving him millions of permutations by texture movements and basics for innovative choreography as well. Due his ballet training he is capable do 8-10 two-feet-leading pirouettes in row and very fast, even with closed arms (extremely difficult), and a backward barrel, a 360° turn jump backwards with hanging arms.

He doesn't have such flexibility like his partner Kaycee  - he was frequently complaining that he has a spine and cannot do that - but the same musicality. Sean on the other hand has an accentuation by texture movements Kaycee cannot match (hardly anyone can) The couple is always noticed as outstanding, because both are extremely clean, controlled by a lot of multi-coordinated texture movements, fierce accentuation  and high expressive performance. Their chemistry is considered legendary for their age. Both were nominated for the Industry Dance Awards 2018 for most fierce dancer under 18, together with Charlize Glass, JT Church and the winner Eva Igo.

In 2019, Sean choreographed a music video for mega-star Meghan Trainor "*AFTER YOU (Directed by Charm La'Donna)"* on Vevo-YT with just 17 years old and is starring with Kaycee on it as duet. Meghan was actually a secret fan of Sean for many years and they finally met at October 31, 2019. He started in April a crowd funding project for his new short film of dancing cultures worldwide with planned budget $65,000 USD. He was nominated for a Arena Award in the category "Rising Star of the year" together with Emma Portner, Logan Edra and the winner Bailey Sok. He was performing the NBC World of Dance World Final intermezzo show on season three together with Kaycee Rice and Ian Eastwood while NE-YO was singing on stage. They got the honor to be in line with dance legends like Les Twins, Keone & Mari Madrid, Derek Hough, The Kinjaz, The Lab, Charity Anderson & Andres Peñateand Michael Dameski. Finally the *Step Up: Year of the Dance*  (aka *Step Up China or Step Up 6)* movie was released. Sean was assistant choreographer for it along with William "Willdabeast" Adams, Janelle Ginestra-Adams and Jaken Isaiah Preston, featuring Jade Cynoweth and Janelle Ginestra-Adams and Wei Qi and SuperDino are starring. It is currently with about $17,000,000 USD estimated budget Sean's biggest project he participated in.  A convention dance video with Kaycee to the song "False Confidence" by Noah Kahan went viral by 5M+ views within just one month and got Noah's personal attention and the adorable Australian invited them to perfom in LA live on stage with him. When Sean turned 18 he celebrated it in Iceland at Reykjavík with his family and Kaycee  Before became an adult he already visited many countries in the world. In this year it was at least China, Dominican Republic, Poland, Japan, Iceland and Denmark. Not many people can claim to be a world citizen at his age.

In 2020, he choreographed for mega-star Justin Bieber on his music video *"At Least For Now"*, was solo starring on it and Sean leveled-up to celebrity choreographer at the age of 18. Just few days before, Justin's new nusic video *"That's What Love Is"* was released, where he is with Kaycee Rice one of six starring dance couples and he had also with Kaycee choreographed the kick off of Disney's new dance series *On The One!* and they were performing it with some friends, before Kaycee broke her ancle shorty afterwards. However, this was WARP-speed in the fast lane during the corona virus quaratine period, when many people get frustrated on perspectives to find dance gigs in future due national-wide shutdowns and economical downswings.

## His Progress

In 2017, he performed as member of ImmaBEAST with his crew members Josh Price, Will Simmons, Julian Deguzman, Josh Beauchamp, Jenna Alvarez, Reese Hatala, Nat Bebko, Tayler Reef, Sienna Lalau and Kerrynton Jones in the Junior Division on season one of NBC's World of Dance and were eliminated in The Cut. But their qualifying routine was completely "cut out" from the show and even their scores weren't announced. There is still a rehearsal video left of the routine.  In The Duels they won against Mini Request, but neither opponent dancing was shown, nor their individual scores by judging.  And in The Cut just their final score was shown and that they were eliminated. However, some members performed on season two. Josh Price became a member of S-Rank, Josh Beauchamp performed as Josh & Taylor with his partner Taylor Hatala, her 11 years old sister Reese Hatala with her new partner Sarah Phoenix as LULAS  - and got "cut out" again - and Sean with Kaycee Rice as Sean & Kaycee. Below are the scores of the rounds they participated in.

In 2018, on the NBC World of Dance show season 2 he performed with his partner Kaycee Rice as Sean & Kaycee, getting second in Divisional Final and they became one of the most popular acts of the show with a lot of special clips and interviews by NBC. Both were contacted individually by different people to join the show, but at the beginning they declined. Sean, because of his experience of been "cut out" of the show, he didn't want experience it again and felt he wasn't self-assure enough, he couldn't choreograoh it under that time pressure in front of millions alone. And Kaycee because she had no idea how do it alone. Later Sean changed his mind, considered participation and gave Kaycee a face-time call if she minded to join as a duo. She said immediately "Yes!", and instanly dropped the mobile on the floor after that and Sean was just watching the ceiling for about 10 minutes, and was asking like "Kaycee?!?", while on both sides the parents were cheering them up "Go for it!". The next two hours there was silence at the phone to process how to manage it in detail. They decided having not too much hope they would survive to next rounds and didn't prepare for more than just one round. Telling a story that matters and inspires to anyone was more important for them than top scoring. They just wanted show case their performance skills and Sean's choreography. Sean filmed with Kaycee behind-the-scene documentaries during each round, how they choreographed and rehearsed four routines under time pressure and became best friends by that. Sean stated later for him the most important part of the show aftermath was that he found in Kaycee someone who is really understanding why he is dancing and is sharing same motivation and attidute. Kaycee said later they add the blindfolds in rehearsals of The Qualifiers three days before the show and changed the routine completely the day before the show after a terrible failure, when she hit him by a push.

But they got huge laudation during the show. Jennifer Lopez eulogized them as with "If anyone in this competition can be called prodigies, it's Sean and his partner Kaycee." ... "You have a real talent" ..."technically perfect" ... "You move me in a way I cannot explain sometimes." and actually broke out into tears after Sean & Kaycee had the nerves to perform half of their qualifiers routine blindfolded in front of 8.5 million watchers (air day + 7 days) on national television later (taped 4 months before), making an huge impact in the dance community. Jenna Dewan stated in an interview later: "I swear to you, they are the future of choreography and dance." After first airing the adorable couple was no longer treated as dance stars, but as common celebrities, who pointed out that they are just best friends and not dating (yet). Below are the scores of the rounds they participated in.

 Jennifer Lopez
 Derek Hough

 Jennifer Lopez
 Derek Hough

 Misty Copeland
 Jennifer Lopez
 Derek Hough

## References

1. ↑ Applause -- Lady GaGa | Sean Lew | Choreographed by Miguel Zarate
2. ↑ Brother - Matt Corby l Choreography by Sean Lew l #BABE2018 l Sean & Kaycee
3. ↑ Sean Lew | Fair Play Dance Camp SHOWCASE 2018
4. ↑ Sean Lew X Asia Camp 2018 X Grandtheft & Delaney - Easy Go
5. ↑ Sean Lew and Rikimaru "WorkShop" choreoraphy Dance
6. ↑ Dance for a better Mexico - Tate McRae, Sean Lew, Autumn Miller and MORE
7. ↑ SEAN LEW in NORTH DANCE CAMP, Tourcoing, France (IG Stories and Videos Compilation)
8. ↑ SEAN LEW - LOSING ( H.E.R.)
9. ↑ Sean Lew & Kaycee Rice – To The Pointe with Kristyn Burtt
10. ↑ EP. 39 “Learn From The Best To Become YOUR Best” | Sean Lew
11. ↑ Get to Know: Sean Lew
12. ↑ First Video The beginning of ImmaBEAST
13. ↑ LilBeast
14. ↑ lilBEASTS Behind The Scenes
15. ↑ Sean Lew “Weak” at The Lab
16. ↑ Sean Lew - (Self-Choreography at 10 years old) Bring It On-Finally Famous Big Sean
17. ↑ Wasaw Poland Team Sean Lew 01
18. ↑ Dem Beats feat Sean Lew - Todrick feat RuPaul | Brian Friedman Choreography | Asia Camp
19. ↑ Vlog #3 ll China
20. ↑ Vlog #2 ll Japan
21. ↑ Miracle l Oreo l Sean Lew Choreography
22. ↑ "BREATHE" | by Sean Lew
23. ↑ D.R.A.M. - Cha Cha Dance
24. ↑ What Do You Mean? - @justinbieber l Sean Lew l Choreographed by Sean Lew
25. ↑ Sean Lew's Masterclass at a High School
26. ↑ Sean Lew and Kaycee Rice FULL Facebook Live (9.5.18)
27. ↑ IMDb Sean Lew
28. ↑ Seans Gradification Cerimony
29. ↑ Seans Gradification Cerimony
30. ↑ Sean Lew and Kaycee Rice Dancė Nėtwork Interview
31. ↑ #prayforpaloma l Choreographed by Sean Lew l Gallant - Talking in Your Sleep
32. ↑ Sean and Kaycee - Skyscraper | D-trix Choreography
33. ↑ Sean's IG The Cameron Boyce Foundation
34. ↑ Casting: Sean Lew
35. ↑ East Coast vs. West Coast | Chopped Junior | Food Network
36. ↑ Most-Hated Foods Challenge on Rachael vs. Guy: Kids Cook-Off | Food Network
37. ↑ Welcome to Our Youtube Channel! | Sean and Kaycee
38. ↑ Sean Lew -Music Teachers Association of California
39. ↑ Sean Lew (10) Play - Ballade Pour Adeline
40. ↑ Distant - LYRICS - Sean Lew and Tate Mcrae
41. ↑ youth l sean lew
42. ↑ this town l sean lew
43. ↑ Be Alright | Sean Lew
44. ↑ Lewser Merch
45. ↑ Sean Lew and Ria at Emerald Ball 2010 Latin
46. ↑ Hollywood dancesport Championships Latin Sean Lew & Ria solo
47. ↑ West Side Story - AMERICA - Choreography by Galen Hooks
48. ↑ West Side Story - Jet Song - Dance Choreography by Galen Hooks ft Sean Lew, Devin Jamieson
49. ↑ Harry Styles - Kiwi - Choreography by Galen Hooks
50. ↑ Walk The Moon - Shut Up And Dance - Choreography by Galen Hooks
51. ↑ GREASE - "You're The One That I Want"
52. ↑ Sia - Move Your Body | Nika Kljun Choreography
53. ↑ John Legend - Tonight - Dance Choreography by Tessandra Chavez
54. ↑ SONNY - Run Around | Choreography by @NikaKljun
55. ↑ Yours - SG Lewis / Sean Lew Choreography
56. ↑ SEAN LEW "RIDE" - CIARA | JOJO GOMEZ CHOREOGRAPHY
57. ↑ Laura Rice's IG Sean & Kaycee yoga
58. ↑ Let Go - Dylan Brady l Sean Lew Choreography
59. ↑ Unravel - Sabrina Claudio feat Kaycee & Sean | The Main Event | Tessandra Chavez Experience
60. ↑ Shawn Mendes - Lost in Japan - Choreography by Jake Kodish ft Sean Lew, Kaycee Rice, Jade Chynoweth
61. ↑ Step Up China
62. ↑ False Confidence: Live l Xtra Sean & Kaycee
63. ↑ Sean's IG Iceland
64. ↑ NBC World of Dance 2017 - ImmaBEAST | UNAIRED Qualifiers Performance (Rehearsals)
65. ↑ World of Dance 2017 - ImmaBEAST: The Duels (Full Performance)
66. ↑ The 'World Of Dance' Season 2 Contestants Include Talented Groups From Every Genre & Backstory — EXCLUSIVE PHOTOS
67. ↑ Sean Lew & Kaycee Rice To the Pointe with Kristyn Burtt
68. ↑ Jenna Dewan Online Interview

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