An outstanding example of the tradition of dance as a devotional art, shrimati M.K.Saroja is among the seniormost exponents of Bharatanatyam. Born in 1931 in Madras, she began her dance career under the tutelage of Vidwan Muthukumaran Pillai of Kathumannar Koil. She gained early fame as a young dancer, giving solo recitals and performing for Ram Gopal’s famous troupe. She became well known in south India for her Bharatanatyam sequences in Tamil films of the 1940s. She also trained in Kathak dance, receiving lessons from several gurus.

Shrimati Saroja is regarded as the foremost representative of her guru’s style. It is from her guru that she inherited the art of Bharatanatyam as an integrated expression of life, as a manifestation of its spiritual dimension. Her performances have been widely acclaimed for her adherence to the best in the traditional technique and her intense devotional fervour. Besides performing Bharatnatyam, she has taught and conducted workshops at centres of dance including M.S.University, Vadodara and Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta. She has also been imparting regular training to young dancers for several years. She has collaborated with the dance scholar, Shri Mohan Khokar, in producing a manual on Bharatanatyam: Dancing Bharatanatyam.

Among other honours, Shrimati Saroja has been bestowed the title Kalaimamani by the Tamil Nadu Eyal Isai Nataka Manram in 1977 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1995.