Meet Radhanath Thialan | Human

We had the good fortune of connecting with Radhanath Thialan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Radhanath, can you share a quote or affirmation with us?
“I am not interested in how people move. but what moves them.”
– Pina Bausch –

A Choreographer’s Perspective:
5,6,7,8….AGAIN!
You teach, all day, going home thinking of ways, researching, moving, just to get the quality out of your dancers. You try, you (think you) discovered it, not quite, you try again. After years of discovery, I realized there’s no way to teach dance, because dance is a language. Language…book – A Script! I need actors!

I turned to some research in acting and did not know why we were not taught some basic fundamentals as dancers during our years of learning this art form. Dance exists in all the in-between spaces – sports & arts, acting & theatre, physical, mental, & spiritual. A formless form, how do you define these to humans whom are so analytical at times to figure out? If there’s no right or wrong answer, how do you compete? What’s “good” or “bad” in dance?

Teaching and choreographing at Yaya Dance Academy since 2017 have taught me a lot. Parents asking questions like “Mr. Rad, what’s the difference between: Contemporary, Lyrical Jazz, Lyrical, Modern?” “I don’t see a difference.” And I’ll reply with there’s no difference it’s just to separate your students so that they don’t compete with each other that’s the business aspect of Dance Competitions. For those of you unfamiliar to these scenes, I’ll try to picture it like this: A dancer looking sad, she grabs something with her left hand, and bam! A leg kick to a lay out, step into an aerial to the floor followed by some intense floor work with exaggerated facial expressions followed by a series of a la second turns to some leaps to an ending pose…all these while Hallelujah was the music of choice. Questionable? Very.

That….that’s not dance. That’s some really hard sports. Or I’ll tell my students, that’s not ‘Dancing’, that’s ‘Doing.’ “Don’t Do, Dance!”

Contemporary dance to me is any and every dance that is done today. I respect that all these genre used are to separate category for commercial purposes as it’s a strategy for financial growth. But dance should just be dance. Let me break it down like this: Words are like a single movement (e.g. plié, tendu, pirouettes en dedans), a sentence is like a short exercise (Adage, Allegro), a paragraph is like a short dance or combinations, a paragraph is a 2min 30sec choreography you compete (or any work that is at length by itself), followed by a thesis or a book – an evening length work. A language such as English, Mandarin, French, Spanish can be translated to styles of dance such as Ballet, Latin, Bharatanatyam, Chinese Folk Dances. All the sub categories could be seen as a dialect (Cantonese, Hokkian are dialects of the Chinese Language as such as how commercial dance competitions create these sub genre like modern, lyrical, lyrical jazz etc.) You’re not able to distinguish any of those. As a choreographer, I could care less about genre. I just use them as a tool to spread out my dancers into different categories.

A student coming into class dragging her feet. A student is so attentive and eager to learn. A student yawned during class.

Without a word, you can easily describe what they are feeling. Why? Body language. Dance need to be felt. How do you expect a 5 year old with costumes exposing their belly swaying their hips to Britney Spears on stage?! That’s something I see in competitions, very inappropriate. Maybe the teacher is in her early twenties but how are you ok exploiting your students like this?

Age appropriate choreographies are so important and as a choreographer and instructor myself, I need to spend time but work fast, to know your students, to choreograph a dance, find a music to enhance the work, and then showcase it at competitions. I am thankful for this process as I usually have 13-15 weeks to finish the choreography, 4-6weeks to clean and then competition season starts. This process is so rewarding. Your students love the piece, you enjoy it as the dancer is motivated, judges finds it refreshing…. the trophy definitely goes to your students!

My students are not the best technical dancers. They train way less than many other studios. How do they get 1st overall in most regional competitions? The answer is that the kids (usually ages 9-15) felt the dance, they can relate to it, they know how to express it with their crazy little minds, they can execute it. That to me is a successful choreography. Using choreography like make-up – to cover the flaws and enhance the pros.

Even though I feel like I have the secret formula, and I know that ideas are endless. Every year, I’m still worried about the amount of choreography I have to come up with. Because before a piece is set for me, I first need to know my dancer(s), their lives, and their maturity. I basically need to open up or bring out their memory to help them remember a certain feeling to then translate it into a new medium – dance. My dancers need to know what they’re doing, every single movement every single breath. If they are not sure, the audience will be lost. I need to see what moved them, in order to make me move.

If you are dancing someone else’s dance, you are doing contemporary dance;
If you are dancing your own dance, you will always be doing contemporary dance.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I love how my answers change, grow, evolve even though I have been asked these questions in the past. One thing that did not change is how I viewed my so called, “not-so-easy times,” a barrier to cross, hence I never taught of these problems as problems from achieving my goals. I also respect successful people so much more as they have done so much to be where they are.

If you want to know a little more about my personal background, you may find it on my website at rad-icaldancecompany.com or https://www.pacificsymphony.org/artist-detail/680/radhanath-thialan.

What sets me apart from others may be me being mischievous, and sees rules as an opportunity to be broken. Since young, I enjoy finding loopholes in my parent’s and teacher’s rules to get myself out of trouble, but sometimes create an “unforgettable moment” for them *sneaky laugh*. I sometimes was the reason why they added rules. I also like to be what normal people call lazy – I call it being efficient. While in grad school, I was asked to choreographed a duet in the middle of the school year with my thesis research, a performance, teaching, and many more projects on my hand. So it was showcase day and I am out of luck not planning my time wisely to rehearse and decided to ask a friend of mine to do the duet. Not with me. With the large floor to wall mirrors found in dance studios. That was one of my mischief shown in choreography which stood out as it is known as the duet with one. Nothing made sense. My professor was Lar Lubovitch, an acclaimed choreographer in USA. He’s a genius when it comes to visuals given his time. I truly respected him. His expression was rewarding – a smirk.

I’m excited everyday. Pretty optimistic person here but you need to keep yourself happy to live in today’s society. Everything around us is sad. News, politics, the day my dog died…but keeping an optimistic mind makes you a problem solver and problems are just another challenge to conquer. I like to challenge the word easy as easy is an illusion of hard-work. You see a dancer on stage gracefully performing a routine effortlessly – easy (illusion). It is only easy because all the muscles in the body is in sync, the mind is the character, movement is in tuned with the music, hours of blood, sweat, tears. That’s why it is easy. It is easy because of so many failures (which I don’t call them failures), I’d say lesson. Once a lesson is learned, is like a game character gaining a skill, your next challenge will definitely be easier with the XP gained.

Easier said than done, but keep doing what you love to do without thinking of the outcome. You cannot satisfy everyone. Have fun, have principles and values, be in sync with your mind. I feel like I am not able to endure hardships if I do not know myself, hence in my classes, I guide my students to first find themselves then creating a relationship with dance, That way, they are able to control their body better and enjoy the process despite how challenging it can be.

I came up with Rad-icalDance Company as a brand for connections and is also working full time at Yaya Dance Academy where we nurture future talents to be the best they can be. I am proud enough to say that I have students that are now in Harvard, UC Berkley, and UC Los Angeles. As a facilitator in the field, I use dance to teach them live. The quality they need in live, skills, discipline and more. I always tell my students, “Some of you may not pursue dance in the future, so why are you here? If you are being forced to learn something not of your choice, you can either be upset and pessimistic or change a perspective and challenge yourself. The choice is yours as if you are willing to learn, knowledge will come.” Dance to me is the only medium that is able to help growing kids learn about themselves, finding their culture and roots, building their values and principles in preparation for them to face life itself. It also allows them to express their deepest feelings that they may not initially want to share through movement.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If I can plan a recital with 62 pieces, 148 dancers, 13 quick changes, 600+ lighting cues…… a one week trip would be easy and fun. The hardest being to take time off and spending time with my best friend,

The most fun or interesting moments are usually the ones unplanned. How often do we truly live in the moment, only to realize that moment was amazing but it was already a memory by then.

I will definitely plan based on my best friend’s preferences but definitely enjoy the company more than many activities. I love to enjoy a good meal and chat but Meteora on Melrose Ave. LA would probably be a place I’d go.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are too many from my partner, mentors, boss, colleague, friends. But I wouldn’t be here today without my principles and values inherited from my dad – Thialan Letchumanan. From the man who was against me and my brother dancing when I was younger to fully supporting my career is a true blessing. What changed his mind is that he saw that I have passion in what I pursue. Dance chose me, just like how health and wellness chose him.

His love and support means everything to me. What made me respected him the most is his ability to not needing to understand but accept, not needing for me to be the same but pushes me to be unique, no pressure of expectations and feeling of disappointments. I cannot thank him enough to be my father and friend. I am extremely blessed to have such an open minded, loving, caring and passionate figure.

Website: https://www.rad-icaldancecompany.com

Instagram: www.instagram/rad.icaldancecompany/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/radhanath-thialan-69444242

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RadhanathThialan/

Image Credits
LK Studio Inc., Leon Glory Damasco Jr., Zhihan Yang, Jerry Li