Whereas many grew up wishing to become superheroes, cops, or martial arts gurus as influenced by the films we watched, the story of the incredibly talented dancer TRilz is a little different; as watching dance films paved the way for Ugandan contemporary dancer.
Titles Breakin’ and the Step Up series, as well as “The Kinjaz” Dance Crew greatly inspired the 19-year-old and modeled him into who he’s become today.
Better known as TRilz, Abbey Emmanuel Tumusiime is a Ugandan contemporary dancer, choreographer, and actor; and rose to prominence following his viral YouTube dance videos to ballads: “Falling” by Harry Styles and “Emily” by James Arthur.
He mentions his first teacher who was also his high school friend, David Musoke as one of his early mentors and the support of his parents who were equally as supportive as his pillars of strength to realizing his dream.
Trilz also recalls from his childhood days secretly rehearsing choreography in his bedroom in fear of facing a furious reaction from his parents; to which he was later astonished by their warm and supportive attitude to his passion.
As a matter of fact, they further advised him to open up a YouTube channel and to “this was the beginning of the TRILZ revolution.” Trilz recounts.
His most popular upload to date being “Falling” by Harry Styles instantly grabbed people’s attention because of the unique style of choreography and storytelling that he portrayed; as it culminates into a Falling Dance Film.
Following a previous copyright strike, which reduced on the engagement on his videos and growth in subscriber count, when Abbey (Trilz) shared a video of him performing a dance story to “Emily” by James Arthur, the reaction this time was much more than before and his subscribers shot from 90 to 450 in just a few hours.
Trilz was in 2019 nominated as “Uganda’s most creative choreographer” at the Buzz Teeniez Awards.
Outside of dance and choreography, Abbey works with his brother Arthur Tumwesige as the Project Manager of TRilz Ltd.
