'I Have a Superpower'

HOW THE DANCER WHO DAZZLES AUDIENCES WITH NEW YORK CITY BALLET HELD STEADY ON THE HEELS OF A DIAGNOSIS THAT THREATENED HER CAREER

- By MEREDITH WILSHIRE

Brighter Days Lately Mearns is loving "the small, simple things," like spending time with her dog Ozzie (in 2024) or making herself dinner.

Sara Mearns is standing en pointe even as she chats. “I feel at home when I’m on the New York City Ballet stage,” says the 39-year-old principal dancer currently starring as the Sugarplum Fairy in George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker. “I could be having a really bad day or not be feeling good, and then I step out onstage, and everything is right.”

A little more than a decade ago, Mearns’s place on that stage—a spot she’d worked her entire life to earn—was thrown into question as she began to lose her ability to hear. When she missed a cue to enter the stage, she knew it was time to do something about it. “That’s when it really scared me,” she says.