
Meet Fiona Hutchens, 22, a ballerina with the Diablo Ballet and certified in American Ballet Theatre curriculum. She also teaches at Oakland Ballet School and at Diablo Ballet School. Her passion for dance and love of music is lifelong. But her dancing career was nearly cut short due to hearing loss. She suffers from bilateral progressive hearing loss, diagnosed at age 11, which is currently being managed through a cochlear implant.
“My mom was a professional ballet dancer. I was put into ballet pretty much as soon as I was able to skip. I always loved dancing, and I loved all sorts of music.” Fiona explained.
In 7th grade, she noticed she was suddenly having trouble hearing people. She would ask people to repeat themselves and they would get annoyed. Sometimes, she couldn’t hear her teacher.
“One of the pivotal moments, I gave a presentation in science class. When students asked questions, I was about to cry because I couldn’t hear them. A girl who sat in front of the room understood this and repeated each person’s question for me. That’s when I realized I couldn’t hear anything. At that age, I was really afraid and embarrassed. I felt isolated socially. I couldn’t have friends.”
She also struggled at ballet. She couldn’t hear her instructor or the music. “I got hearing aids five days before my 12th birthday.” When she first put them on, paper rustling, pen writing, keys clacking, air conditioning — “I didn’t know any of these things made noise.”
In two years, her left ear couldn’t hear even with the hearing aid. A cochlear specialist suggested she get a cochlear implant.
“I was like, ‘absolutely not!’ Invasive surgery was scary. I was preparing myself to become deaf and attend a deaf school. I started teaching myself sign language off the Internet.”
Eventually, as a sophomore in high school, she agreed to have the surgery. When it was activated, she couldn’t decipher anything. It sounded completely foreign. She couldn’t distinguish a voice. “It took me probably two months to be able to understand what was going into my ear with the implant. It wasn’t sound amplification.” Her brain had to reinterpret signals and relearn how to hear. “The music doesn’t sound the same in the cochlear even today, so that’s something that’s a challenge.”

Fiona is performing in all three Diablo Ballet dances coming up on February 7 and 8 at the Lesher Center in Walnut Creek.
“We’re doing ‘Donizetti Variations’ by George Balanchine and ‘Cinderella’s Wedding’ staged by Julia Adams, and then ‘Doctor Magic’, a piece that Penny Saunders created for us last season.
“I’m lucky I get to do all three of those. They are super fun and really challenging. Donizetti variations are one of my favorite ballets now.”