Lillian followed her passion and became a famous Choreographer, running her Dance Company in Mumbai.

Lillian Mendes has been working as a Choreographer and a Dance Teacher for the last twenty-one years. She has worked in many reality shows with celebrities and has been an integral part of the Television industry. She has been running her Dance Company under the name ‘Dance Planet’ for fifteen years now in Mumbai. She feels proud to share that she has students from all over the world.

Lillian hails from Mumbai, Maharashtra. She completed her education from there itself.

Talking about her childhood memories, Lillian says that she had an ordinary upbringing facing financial challenges as her father was a Taxi Driver. She remembers she got to dance a lot in front of people in her neighborhood. Gradually she started participating in the Dance competitions in her colony and won one of them. That’s when her Dance career started off. She was approached by India’s renowned choreographer, Toby Fernandes who took her in his Dance troupe. From there she progressed in her career and got a chance to perform in big shows from a very young age of fifteen years.

Lillian considers her father as her role model because despite being a taxi driver, he never gave up in life and tried to give good upbringing to her. Apart from this, she takes inspiration from one of her friends, Kailash who never left her side and always supported her.

About her struggles, Lillian says that initially her parents supported her but moving ahead, they felt that Dancing was just a hobby and a career can not be carved out of it. Although she was good at studies and also took private tuitions, her inclination was towards Dancing and she took it seriously after her graduation. Instead of doing a regular job, she decided to do something of her own and it led to the formation of ‘Dance Planet.’ She used to teach all the dance forms there and in no time, her institute became Mumbai’s most famous dance academy with her specialization and popularity in ‘Jive’ dance form. Still, earning a good income was a constraint for her as this field doesn’t offer good income from the beginning.

Lillian says that during the Covid pandemic, when all the businesses came to a halt, she also panicked but gradually she had an understanding of that phase and started her dance academy on the online platform. It gave a boost to her dance company as she started getting students not only from India but also abroad.

Regarding her achievements, Lillian says that as she rose from the ground level and did well in life, when she appeared on TV for the first time, was a big achievement for her. Later on working in big reality shows and celebrations from around the world, is no less than an achievement for her.

If Lillian had a Time Machine, she would want to go back to her childhood and start taking dance training as soon as possible so that her career in it would be even better than what it is now.

When she is not working, Lillian enjoys cooking and baking in her spare time.

Lillian advises the younger generation to be patient in everything that they do. She tells them to keep on working hard because nothing comes easy in life. The harder you work, the more you will progress in life. Also, she says that don’t stop taking risks because if you don’t take the risk you won’t fail and if you don’t fail then you might not know the taste of success.