Dance
Taking the Leap with Sean Lew
A viral sensation by the time he was 11, dance phenom Sean Lew has turned his focus to conquering his fear of battling—all the way to the largest global stage.
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The path to glory started with fear. The prevailing truism still holds that “the only thing you have to fear is fear itself,” but in the case of 21-year-old dancer and artist Sean Lew, he intuitively understood that the only way to shatter stasis was to tackle what most instilled terror in him.
This is how Lew found himself in Chicago at the Red Bull Dance Your Style National Final in May of this year. A prodigy since preschool, by the time that the Southern California native entered junior high, he was already an acclaimed choreographer with viral videos, television appearances and countless dance championships to his name. But nothing induced dread like the prospect of a freestyle battle. And only a few months after deciding to enter this unfamiliar arena, he was competing in the final rounds against those who had dedicated their lives to the art of improvisation.
“I’ve experienced a lot in my years dancing: reality shows, competitions, music videos, award shows. I’ve hit a lot of the marks,” Lew says at a warehouse space in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles, roughly 25 miles from the tidy suburb on the eastern fringes of L.A. County where he grew up and still lives.
“Post-pandemic, it got to a point where I was like, ‘What am I doing? How do I avoid feeling like I’m stuck? What scares me the most? What have I been avoiding my whole dance career?’ ” Lew continues. “That’s when it kind of hit me. My biggest fear ever is battling.”
Sean Lew was photographed for The Red Bulletin in L.A. on August 9.
© MARIA JOSÉ GOVEA
If Zoomers are often stereotyped as distracted and anxious narcissists addicted to social media, Lew comes off as the diametric opposite. Despite being one of the best and most famous dancers on Earth, he speaks gently and with striking empathy. His phone is nowhere in sight. He makes eye contact with the concentration of a Zen master. His discipline, politeness and humility lend the wizened air of someone who has lived several lifetimes before this one.
The old-soul calm is a stark contrast to his electric charisma and Olympian dance floor athleticism. He wears long black hair, a plain white tee and green-and- eggshell-colored pants that he personally painted with a picture of the sun. When Lew talks about what he’s most passionate about—dance, family, cooking, film—his dark eyes exude a sparkling sheen. He’s here without an entourage, traveling only with his trainer and coach, Karl Flores.
“I can’t party. I’m antisocial. I like to be at home before midnight,” Lew laughs. “My best friends are in their late 20s and older. I love that. I love being around people who are better than me. I love being around people who know more than me, because it inspires me to want to know more.”
These self-effacing qualities become even more striking when you factor in the 1.5 million Instagram followers who hang on his every move. Or his appearances on the first two seasons of NBC’s World of Dance, where a 16-year-old Lew and his partner, Kaycee Rice, were so impressive they made Jennifer Lopez cry. (J.Lo hailed him as a “technically perfect prodigy ... [he moves] me in a way I cannot explain.”) Or the choreography he’s done for stars like Justin Bieber and Meghan Trainor. Or the fact that he’s currently starring on the Fox crime drama The Cleaning Lady. Or that somehow he managed to find the time to write, direct and produce a one- hour avant-garde dance musical, 2021’s II: An Unspoken Narrative. Oh, and just for fun, he’s also a virtuosic chef who won the Chopped Junior competition in 2016.
Lew has over 1.5 million Instagram followers who hang on his every move.
© MARIA JOSÉ GOVEA
"When my family ran on stage, that was the moment I had been hoping for.”
© MARIA JOSÉ GOVEA
Lew excels at so many things that it seems almost comical—as if he’s a terminator sent from a utopian future to dazzle audiences with tricky dance moves, teach them how to make delectable five-spice seared duck breasts and eventually rack up EGOT wins (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). He was ostensibly born without the gene that causes trepidation, but in reality, that’s definitely not the case.
“I don’t care how many times I’ve battled, it will never get easy for me. I will always be nervous,” Lew says. “The beautiful thing about battling is that you’re always going to be mentally and physically challenged. To me, that’s a sign of growth. You have to learn to be OK with being uncomfortable.”
Bear in mind, very few people on this planet look more comfortable dancing than Sean Lew. His effortless grace, gymnastic flexibility, blinding speed and creative ingenuity allow him to stamp a singular imprint on every conceivable style. Whether it’s hip-hop, jazz, ballroom, modern dance, house, ballet or samba, he’s mastered them all. At times, his moves recall those of Michael Jackson, Usher or a half dozen other dance-world inspirations. But Lew transcends the medium altogether. Watching him dance is like glimpsing a David Blaine sleight-of- hand card trick or witnessing Simone Biles landing a double layout with a half twist. It is the divine gift that would seem prophesized by a wise trio bringing myrrh into a manger. But this story has a more pedestrian origin. It begins in a sleepy Los Angeles suburb called Walnut.
“I can’t party. I’m antisocial. I like to be at home before midnight."
© MARIA JOSÉ GOVEA
The old Zimbabwean proverb holds that “if you can walk, you can dance.” This may not be true for the tens of millions with two left feet, but in the case of Lew, it is axiomatic. He began dancing almost as soon as he stopped crawling. The spark began after his parents enrolled his two older sisters, Serris and Sarah, in dance class. Occasionally, the toddler, Sean, tagged along to watch. His extraordinary talent and ambition became apparent after the family got home. Blasting his sisters’ music tracks on repeat, he attempted to copy their choreographed moves in the living room.
“They had a group piece where they were dancing with a towel. So I took a towel from the bathroom and acted like I knew the dance—up to the point where my parents were like, ‘OK, I think we need to put you in the class, too,’ ” Lew recalls. “I didn’t want to watch TV. I didn’t want to play games, I didn’t want to do anything but dance.”
His parents, immigrants from China and Japan, encouraged their son’s burgeoning gift. By the end of his first class he burst into tears, because he didn’t want it to be over. Before he was old enough to read, Lew already knew what he wanted for the rest of his life.
“I couldn’t envision doing anything else,” he says, beaming at the youthful enthusiasm that has scarcely dimmed. “To be fair, I was only 4.”
If you have the time, a deep dive on Lew’s YouTube page is highly recommended. There he is, only 6 years old, shirtless and dimpled in yellow harem pants, performing a tap dance routine worthy of Gregory Hines to the Lion King soundtrack. At 9 years old, he’s leading a jazz dance trio: backflipping, pirouetting and busting out splits to Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary.” It’s hard to fathom a child so young and adorable having such poise, swagger and command of his movements, but here lies tangible proof.
A generation ago, such precocity would have landed Lew a Star Search championship. Maybe even a spot on the new Mickey Mouse Club. But in the modern era, he could rocket to international notoriety simply by going viral. What feels inevitable in retrospect first occurred to Lew at age 11, when a 2013 video of him leading a routine to Lady Gaga’s “Applause” became one of the most widely circulated clips on the internet. A month later, Lew was invited to perform the dance on The Queen Latifah Show. A star was born.
“When I dance, I feel like I’m being heard and seen,” says Lew, describing what made him fall in love with the art. “I feel like my voice is louder than when I actually speak. I want to feel happy, and I only feel that way when I dance.”
Lew at the Red Bull Dance Your Style National Final in Chicago.
© CHRIS HERSHMAN / RED BULL CONTENT POOL
Happiness may have been readily accessible through the pursuit of his dreams, but it wasn’t always a constant. As he rose through the ranks of the dance world—joining the Pulse on Tour convention, traveling across the country to teach master classes, stealing the show on World of Dance—there was the desire to find a normal teenage life.
“At public school, I got made fun of for being a male dancer. When I tried to play basketball, I got pushed away or laughed at for the clothes I wore, or the career I was trying to pursue,” Lew says of the year he spent at junior high before switching to homeschooling. “In public school, I found myself a little depressed and lost.”
The generational dislocation was mitigated by tremendous professional success and a tight-knit family. Nearly all of his passions stem back to his closest kin. Lew ascribes his love of art to his mother and grandmother, both painters. He began dancing to emulate his sisters, whom he has also partnered with on the “Lewser” clothing line. His mother is a great cook, so it was only natural that a young Lew became obsessed with cooking shows. Soon enough, Lew threw a “Family Appreciation Day,” where he re-envisioned their Walnut home as a restaurant. At 11, he cooked a multi- course dinner for his parents and sisters, even serving them like a waiter.
“I didn’t know what I was doing, but seeing the emotions on their faces made me really happy,” Lew says. “I don’t ever really see cooking as a career. It’s always just been a vessel for me to make people happy. That’s how I see dancing, as well as any art form.”
If there’s a reason why Lew is so grounded and devoid of ego, that too can be traced back to his family.
“I couldn’t envision doing anything else."
© MARIA JOSÉ GOVEA
“My parents always wanted to keep him levelheaded,” Serris Lew says. “He still had to get good grades. There was that expectation that even if you’re an amazing dancer, there’s a business aspect. You have to communicate well with people. No matter how famous he got, my parents cared most about how hard he was working.”
When I dance, I feel like I’m being heard and seen, like my voice is louder than when I actually speak.
His other sister, Sarah, agrees. “Sean was always self-motivated,” she says. “He’s the one who went out in search of projects, trying new things.”
Behind this indefatigable work ethic lies clarion vision. For all the unseen fear, there is a bravery that allows him to conquer whatever piques his interest. When he wanted to learn to cook, he didn’t seek out the best culinary school; he just started experimenting in the kitchen. When he wanted to learn to act, he knew that memorizing scripts, taking acting classes and recording his own monologues came before finding an agent. When he wanted to make his own film, he taught himself to write, direct and edit. He raised all the money himself, too.
“It’s not about winning on your first go,” Lew says. “It’s about knowing how to respond to your failures first and then using them to eventually find success.”
Lew is also a talented chef and cast member on the drama The Cleaning Lady.
© MARIA JOSÉ GOVEA
Let’s be unequivocal: Sean Lew is not beholden to the same laws of gravity or physical constraints that burden regular mortals. We can talk all day about his work ethic and innate talent, but some rare outliers are naturally inclined toward greatness. He’s in a very special league.
His journey to the Red Bull Dance Your Style National Final in Chicago only began at the start of this year. There was no eureka epiphany—merely the desire to triumph over his darkest anxieties.
“I told [trainer Karl Flores], ‘Here’s a crazy idea. What if we train for Red Bull Dance Your Style?’ ” Lew says. “We had the same questions: What is it about? How do you train for it? All I knew was that it was one of my biggest fears and the time to do was it now. It held me accountable to facing my fear. If I didn’t do Dance Your Style, I knew I would never battle.”
Lew had spent his career working within tightly scripted choreography, but Red Bull Dance Your Style reflected the gleefully spontaneous opposite. The competition unites dancers from all street- style disciplines to compete in one-on-one battles. You don’t know the songs that the DJ will play ahead of time. The crowd votes for the winner.
The resistance to battling makes sense when you understand Lew’s temperament. Battling is built on bulletproof confidence that can easily veer into the hubristic. It is hypercompetitive and rooted in the notion of being better than everybody else.
The beautiful thing about battling is that you’re always going to be mentally and physically challenged. To me, that’s a sign of growth. You have to learn to be OK with being uncomfortable.
“It’s not my type of conversation,” Lew admits. “Everything about the industry that I grew up in is the opposite of battling. You respect your peers. I don’t like to compete directly with people ... just myself. But battling is very exposing. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you’ve done—all that matters is that you have the better moment than the other person.” After they filed their application to enter, Lew and Flores devised a plan. Flores invented a new experimental program that took Lew straight from rowing machines and treadmills to minute-long freestyle routines. The idea was to force him to innovate in a fatigued state to mimic the conditions of a battle.
On paper, these collaborators share a traditional coach-athlete relationship, but in person they seem more like best friends and brothers focused on achieving mutual goals.
“He has such a good heart and pure, joyous energy,” Flores says of Lew. “He’s humble but hungry. A pure artist who seizes the moment with creativity and decisiveness. And he has an insane amount of courage.”
For nearly anyone else, constant success could have bred complacency. But with Lew, nagging self-doubt pushed him harder. It wasn’t enough to refine his krump and house skills; he reached out to experts to teach him the history and culture behind these genres. Without understanding the background, he felt like integrating these styles would seem hollow and imitative.
Lew and his trainer, Karl Flores (left).
© MARIA JOSÉ GOVEA
After months of rigorous training, Lew faced his first challenge in April: the notably difficult Red Bull Dance Your Style Los Angeles regional qualifier. In this capital of entertainment, home to the most celebrated dancers in the world, Lew easily cruised to victory despite dealing with cramps in his calves. The following day, he and Flores returned to work, brainstorming on how to improve his performance and avoid health problems for May’s national final.
In Chicago, the fear threatened to swallow him whole. Less than half a year after deciding to battle, Lew was now going move for move with the best freestylers from across the country. But his lack of experience didn’t matter. With ruthless efficiency and a disarming smile, Lew dispatched would-be competitors. The final loomed, where he was pitted against Oakland’s formidable Daisy VMZ.
The tension continued to mount, but after each round, Flores flashed Lew a calming “you got this” grin. No matter how much the knot in his stomach tightened, Lew’s natural instincts and creativity kicked in. To watch the last round of the Red Bull Dance Your Style National Final is to experience one of the most inventive wild-style performances ever captured on video. There is no way to convey the velocity, showmanship and kinetic voltage of Lew’s interpretations. You just need to see it.
“I had to trust that the music would take me to wherever I needed to be,” says Lew, describing the process. “In my head, I pictured everyone who has supported me along the way. My true family. No matter what I do, this is for them. It’s not for me. It’s not for the audience.”
Lew had spent his career working within tightly scripted choreography.
© MARIA JOSÉ GOVEA
At first, the DJ spun Busta Rhymes’s “Break Ya Neck,” a whiplash-inducing Dr. Dre beat that Rhymes demolishes at warp speed. Lew proceeded to match their level of greatness like he’d been practicing these moves to this beat for months. He pops and locks, whips his hands, glides like Gene Kelly, stomps the ground in a circle like he learned to krump on asphalt, kicks his legs like his joints don’t matter and hits a B-Boy freeze at the precise moment that Busta yells “Stop!!”
With the second selection, Crystal Waters’s house anthem “Gypsy Woman” booms from the speakers. It couldn’t be more different than the first track, but Lew hits moves that could only be described as “what if the Rock Steady Crew were the stars of Paris Is Burning?” For the finale, Lew turns Kendrick Lamar and Baby Keem’s “Family Ties” into something like a Compton house-party ballet choreographed by Misty Copeland. He imitates a whirling bird, runs in circles, toys with the beat’s tempo, spins with figure-skater speed and slams the floor in time with Keem screaming “Beat it up! Beat it up!”
Battling is often filled with bravado and rivalry. But Lew’s performance is so good humored and filled with such unbridled passion that at the end of the song, Daisy VMZ wraps him in a bear hug.
Lew will compete at the Red Bull Dance Your Style World Final in Frankfurt.
© MARIA JOSÉ GOVEA
After the crowd votes him champion, Lew’s family streams out from the stands to envelop him in a warm embrace.
“Never in a million years did I think I would have a moment like that,” Lew says. “I wanted to gain a new experience in my life and in my dance career. And when my family ran on stage, that was the moment I had been hoping for. It was the reason why I stepped into this whole journey in the first place.”
The Red Bull Dance Your Style World Final awaits on November 4 in Frankfurt, Germany. Of course, Lew is already swept up in a whirlwind of activity, with teaching trips taking him to Korea, Mexico, Japan and China. And every time he puts on his choreographer hat, he says it pulls him away from the mentality required to be a freestyle champion.
“I’m the most nervous that I’ve ever been, which is funny because I say that before every battle,” Lew laughs. “But doing all this choreography again, I’ve been freaking out about going to Frankfurt, because I have no idea how I’m actually going to be able to prepare for this.”
This is a natural emotion. After all, it’s inevitable that nerves would come into play having to go up against the world’s greatest dancers in a foreign country in front of a rapturous audience. But in truth, it’s everyone who has to compete against Sean Lew who should be very afraid.
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