Padmaja Reddy
A Kuchipudi dancer who has given over 3,000 shows and revived the medieval Kakatiyam dance from an old text, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2022.
Gaddam Padmaja Reddy is a Kuchipudi dancer, teacher and choreographer who has performed for more than five decades. She was named for the Padma Shri in 2022 in the field of art, from Telangana [1].
Training with the masters
Padmaja Reddy was born on 1 January 1967 [2]. Her love of Kuchipudi grew under two great teachers of the form, Vempati Chinna Satyam and Shobha Naidu [2]. She has given more than 3,000 performances in India and abroad, and is best known for her portrayals of Satyabhama and of the Kakatiya queen Rudrama Devi [2].
Dance with a message
She founded the Pranav Institute of Kuchipudi Dance, where more than 1,500 students have trained [2]. She has composed dance dramas on social themes, such as Bhruna Hatyalu against female foeticide and Jagruthi on AIDS, as well as mythological works such as Mahishasura Mardini and Navadurgalu [2]. She was also the first Kuchipudi dancer in India to teach the form over the internet, and wrote a theory book for certificate courses [2].
Kakatiyam
Her best-known project is Kakatiyam, in which she rebuilt dances described in Jayapa Senani’s 13th-century treatise Nritta Ratnavali and brought them to the stage, interwoven with episodes from the history of the Kakatiya dynasty [2].
She received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for 2015 [2].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2022: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 24 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2022: citation for Padmaja Reddy — Padma Awards, Government of India. Accessed 24 October 2026.
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