Tanjore Balasaraswati, also known as Balasaraswati (1918–1984), was a celebrated Indian dancer. Her rendering of Bharatanatyam, a classical dance style originated in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, made this style of dancing well known across India and the world. Balasaraswati was a seventh generation representative of a traditional matrilineal family of temple musicians and dancers (devadasis). Balasaraswati created a revolution in traditional music and dance for bharata natyam, a combination of the performance arts of music and dance. Balasaraswati's debut took place in 1925. She was the first performer of her traditional style outside of South India, performing first in Calcutta in 1934. She went on to a global career that attracted international critical attention. Balasaraswati established a dance school in association with the institution. There she trained new dancers in bharata natyam. In the early 1960s, she increasingly travelled globally, with performances in East Asia, Europe, and North America. Throughout the 1970s, and into the early 1980s, she visited the United States repeatedly and held residencies—as both a teacher and a performer—at Wesleyan University (Middletown, Connecticut), California Institute of the Arts (Valencia), Mills College (Oakland, California), the University of Washington (Seattle), and Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival (Beckett, Massachusetts), among other institutions.