Title: 1) Founder; 2) Associate Artistic Director; 3) Vice President; 4) Assistant Project Coordinator
Company: 1) Rad-ical Dance Company; 2) Yaya Dance Academy; 3) San Musae Cultural Center; 4) The T.O.P. Awards LLC
Location: Hacienda Heights, California, United States
Radhanath Thialan, Founder at Rad-ical Dance Company, Associate Artistic Director at Yaya Dance Academy, Vice President at San Musae Cultural Center and Assistant Project Coordinator at The T.O.P. Awards LLC, has been recognized by Marquis Who’s Who Top Artists for dedication, achievements, and leadership in the Performing Arts.
Mr. Thialan has established himself within the performing arts sector as an expert in dance choreography, with a career spanning over a decade and marked by a commitment to storytelling through movement. After several years teaching dance and working as a choreographer for other organizations, he founded Rad-ical Dance Company in Los Angeles, California, in 2015, demonstrating his entrepreneurial spirit within the field.
In 2017, Mr. Thialan also began serving as the associate artistic director at Yaya Dance Academy in the City of Industry, California. In this capacity, he conducts in-person classes and is tasked with developing and supervising choreography for the academy’s competition team. Mr. Thialan also manages administrative responsibilities, such as student enrollment for competitions, and communicates judges’ feedback to parents. Furthermore, he has been instrumental in preparing for recitals, overseeing costume orders, music editing, lighting coordination and promotional activities. Notably, since joining the academy, Mr. Thialan has been credited with developing an application for the studio that streamlines recital and competition information for parents.
The Yaya Dance Academy was founded to help American-born Chinese youth reconnect with their heritage through dance, blending folk and Chinese classical styles with contemporary movements. As a native of Malaysia, Mr. Thialan takes a deeply personal approach to his role by investing time in understanding his students’ backgrounds before crafting each piece and ensuring every choreographed work is unique. He recognizes the identity challenges faced by many children growing up in the United States and uses dance as a bridge to cultural understanding and self-confidence.
In 2020, Mr. Thialan leveraged his expertise to begin serving as the vice president of the San Musae Cultural Center in the City of Industry, where he continues to promote cultural engagement through the arts. The center serves as a nonprofit organization that bridges the gap between Eastern and Western art.
Additionally, since 2024, Mr. Thialan has contributed as the assistant project coordinator at The T.O.P Awards LLC in Irvine, California. Together with Yaya, he developed the T.O.P. Awards to introduce high school students to the audition process for dance companies and broaden their exposure to various aspects of the dance industry. The initiative includes seminars and workshops during the summer months, led by master teachers and dancers from diverse organizations, as well as planned courses in lighting design, stage management, dance administration and public relations marketing. The program also allows participants to compete for scholarships and grants for their artistic endeavors.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Thialan worked as a choreographer for Pacific Symphony’s Lunar New Year event in Irvine from 2019 to 2020, a project that celebrated cultural diversity through performance art and contributed creative works that celebrated cultural traditions through dance. Also in 2019, he excelled as an online media coordinator for the American College Dance Association in Irvine. Mr. Thialan contributed as a freelance video editor for the National Choreographers Initiative in Irvine from 2017 to 2021 and, among his foundational roles, was a choreographer at Shanghai Normal University in Shanghai, China, in 2017, a dancer with Instinct Dance Corps in Scottsdale, Arizona, between 2015 and 2016, and a jazz and Latin teacher at Dance Moves Studio in Puchong, Malaysia, from 2012 to 2014.
Apart from his work in the field, Mr. Thialan was a teaching assistant at the University of California (UC), Irvine, between 2018 and 2020, where he had the opportunity to support students’ learning experiences while advancing his own studies. He also worked as a student administrative assistant at Scottsdale Community College from 2015 to 2016 while pursuing an associate degree before serving as an adjunct faculty member on campus during 2022.
Mr. Thialan’s educational background has been foundational to his success. He studied dance at the Dua Space Dance Theatre Academy. He also received several degrees, beginning with an associate degree in business management, dance technology and dance fine arts from Scottsdale Community College in 2016. Subsequently, Mr. Thialan completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts in dance choreography, with honors, in 2018 and a Master of Fine Arts in dance in 2020 from the Claire Trevor School of the Arts at UC Irvine. While pursuing his advanced degree, he was selected as the only student choreographer to premiere a work in 2017 in Shanghai. He also interned at OC Music & Dance from 2017 to 2019.
In addition to his formal education, Mr. Thialan received several dance credentials, including an advanced dance certificate from the Royal Academy of Dance. He also completed Excellence in Dance Education from the T.O.P Awards Summer Program via Certopus by DevSquirrel Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Outside of dance, Mr. Thialan received grade eight piano certification from the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music and recognition as a taekwondo fourth dan from Kukkiwon.
As an author, Mr. Thialan contributed “The Paper Dance” to the Dance Major Journal. Being able to contribute to the publication was not only a testament to his creative processes, but also served as recognition as an expert within the discipline.
Mr. Thialan’s accomplishments have been recognized with numerous awards, including the Dancing Artie Award for Most Outstanding Student at Scottsdale Community College Dance for 2015-2016, the MCCCD Artist of Promise Film Competition Award from Maricopa Community Colleges in 2016, and the Outstanding Choreographer Award from UC Irvine Dance in 2018. He also earned several dance scholarships. Among Mr. Thialan’s most notable achievements, however, was being selected for a fully sponsored cultural exchange program in Shanghai and Tel Aviv by UC Irvine, a testament to his recognized talent and dedication.
Beyond accolades, Mr. Thialan considers witnessing his students’ growth beyond dance as his most rewarding professional experience. He takes pride in nurturing qualities such as discipline, responsibility and time management among his students, skills that have helped them gain admission to prestigious institutions like Harvard University and UC Berkeley. Many students who initially felt disconnected from their heritage have come to appreciate their culture through Mr. Thialan’s guidance.
Born in Malaysia, Mr. Thialan began dancing worldwide by age 10. Growing up amid the country’s multicultural environment instilled values of harmony and respect that continue to influence his work today. Looking ahead, Mr. Thialan aims to secure permanent residency status while continuing to inspire future generations of dancers, encouraging them to embrace individuality on stage and take pride in their identities before performing publicly. He also plans to expand his choreographic work beyond the studio by submitting pieces to festivals and raising his profile within the broader dance community, all while helping others discover themselves through the art form he so passionately advances.
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