\n<\/p>\n
It helped, Angle said, that he and Mearns are able to hear music in a similar way, their responses fueled by the same impulses. Because of that, he said, \u201cshe would have my body and my cuing and my breath to also help tell her what the meter was and what the tempo was.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mearns has been shocked, she said, by how many dancers she\u2019s heard from who have hearing loss. \u201cI hope that I can inspire them to maybe do something about it,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m not saying that everybody needs hearing aids. Everybody\u2019s different. That\u2019s why you have to do all the tests.\u201d<\/p>\n
She first had an issue with her own hearing 10 years ago. In Brazil, she attended a rehearsal for Carnival held in a metal gym where around 100 drummers played for an hour. When she left the gym, she said, she could no longer hear, which lasted for a couple of days. When she returned to New York, she went to a doctor and learned that she had hearing loss in low registers in both ears. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t that bad that I really was impaired on a daily basis,\u201d she said. \u201cI just knew that this event had happened and I wanted to get my ears checked.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it got worse. During the pandemic, Mearns said, she recognized: \u201cI have a problem because I can\u2019t hear people talk with masks on. And I then realized, Wait, I can\u2019t see their mouth. Which then was like, I have been watching<\/em> people talk instead of listening to them. I have been reading their lips.\u201d<\/p>\n She was nervous to do interviews, to participate in talks. She was mortified to ask pianists to play louder. Last year, she suffered from injuries and felt \u201ceverything sort of falling apart for me,\u201d she said. \u201cI was like this is also a huge thing that\u2019s contributing to my life being so closed off and dark, and I need to do something about this.\u201d<\/p>\n Mearns underwent a series of tests to pinpoint the problem, which is nerve hearing loss. In October, she worked to find the best option for her hearing aids with her audiologist, who put them in place. She can\u2019t feel them, but they make her hyper aware of the vibrations in her body, the air when she is spinning, the reverberation of landings from jumps and the sound of her pointe shoes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n