Kanika Chadda

Kanika Chadda began her dance training in Kuchipudi at the age of five under Smt. Anuradha Nehru, disciple of the last living exponent of the art form, Guru Vempati Chinna Satyam. After over a decade of rigorous summer dance camps, performing in dramas including Rabindranath Tagore’s Chandalika and Ramayana, and participating in showcases and workshops hosted by the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Gandhi Memorial Center, Smithsonian, and National Geographic, Kanika developed an unshakeable foundation in classical dance which allowed her to explore Hip Hop, Modern, Salsa, and Bollywood Fusion styles during her undergraduate career at Boston University.

Post graduation, she relocated to Mumbai where she trained with Shiamak Davar’s Institute of Performing Arts (SDIPA) and later moved to New York where she became a member of Pooja Narang’s Bollywood Axion dance troupe. This led her to an opportunity to perform with Masala Cruises, where she took part in elaborate Bollywood productions and taught Bhangra aerobics classes on board while journeying to Italy, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Nova Scotia, and the Caribbean.

She was invited by the World Bank to teach original choreography to the Slumdog Millionaire hit “Jai Ho” and continues to periodically teach contemporary Bollywood dance at India School in Bethesda, Maryland.

A born performer, she was crowned Miss India East Coast in 2006 and returned to India to work as an Entertainment Anchor for CNN’s sister station, CNN-IBN, covering fashion and Bollywood/Hollywood daily news. She currently hosts “Bollywood Buzz” and “Mumbai Beats” on Sahara One TV and is an active member of the South Asian Journalists Association. (To view clips of her work, log on to www.kanikachadda.com).