Karuna Sagari Venkatachalam is a classical Bharatanatyam dancer initially trained by her mother, Dr. Neela Venkatachalam. She graduated with honours from the world-renowned performing arts institution, the Kalakshetra Foundation, Chennai, in 2008. For 10 years, outstanding choreographer, Sheejith Krishna guided her in her pursuit of this dance form and its related specializations. Currently, she is under the mentorship of veteran danseuse, Malavika Sarukkai. She holds a Masters degree in South Asian Studies from the University of Heidelberg, Germany besides a Master Degree in Tamil from Annamalai University.

The inheritor of a rich oral-matrilineal legacy in poetry and music, Karuna Sagari received rigorous, in-depth instruction in bhakti spiritualism, poetics, and performance from her grandmother, Smt. Swarna Somasundaram, an esteemed scholar of classical and medieval Tamil literature. She has been immersed since childhood in a centuries-old devotional corpus, and the medieval bhakti traditions of Tevaram, Tiruvasagam and Tiruppugazh.