In February one of my teachers, Guru Padmabhushan Kalanidhi Narayanan, passed away at an age of 87. Kalanidhi was a great artist and teacher. She learned classical Indian dance, Bharata Natyam, as a child and had a career as a dancer during her teens, and then 30 years later began teaching Abhinaya, the mimic part of the dance. Her passing made me reflect over how much she and my other teachers have meant to me, both as an artist and personally. The first time I saw Kalanidhi