Tanjore Balasaraswati (1918 – 1984), fondly known as Balasaraswati or Bala, often called "a revolutionary Bharatanatyam dancer", was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1957 and the Padma Vibhushan in 1977.
Bala was a seventh generation representative of a traditional matrilineal family of temple musicians and dancers (devadasis), who have been described as the greatest single repository of the traditional performing arts of music and dance. She started her Bharatanatyam training at the age of five, and made her dancing debut in 1925, at the age of seven, at the Kamakshi Amman Temple in Kancheepuram.
She was the first performer of her traditional style outside of South India, performing first in Calcutta in 1934. Choreographer Uday Shankar, became an ardent promoter of her performances, and she captured the imagination of audiences across India and abroad in her dancing career spanning .
Encouraged by the Madras Music Academy in Madras, she established a dance school where she trained new dancers in Bharatanatyam as per her vision.
Her son-in-law Douglas M. Knight, Jr. has written her biography "Balasaraswati: Her Art and Life". Satyajit Ray made a documentary titled "Bala" featuring her work.