Adrianne Haslet-Davis Survives Boston Bombing And Dances With ‘Bionic Leg’
Adrianne Haslet-Davis was a victim of the Boston Marathon bombing last year. All those who were injured have been struggling to rebuild their lives since that horrific day.
Adrianne lost her left leg below the knee, which is especially poignant since she was a professional dancer and dance instructor.
She wowed at the time that she would dance again, and on Wednesday she showed that was more than just a dream as she danced the Rhumba at the 2014 TED Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Fitted with a specially made prosthetic leg, she whirled around the dance floor with partner Christian Lightner to a song of Enrique Iglesias.
Following the performance, Haslet-Davis issued a statement saying, “I’m thrilled to have danced again. I was always determined to dance again, and I knew that I had to, that I would, and here I am.”
Adrianne’s husband, Air Force Maj. Adam Davis was also injured along with over 250 others.
The so called “bionic leg” was designed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), by Hugh Herr, the director of biomechatronics at the institute. He told the TED conference that he created the leg specifically for dancing after visiting Haslet-Davis in hospital.
Herr is himself a double amputee following a climbing accident in 1982. He climbs today with his own personally designed legs.
He said he wanted Adrienne to be able to dance again and added, “A human being can never be broken”
Herr had to spend many hours studying dance to understand what movements and forces were needed to create the prosthetic for Haslet-Davis.
Adrienne Haslet-Davis has achieved the seemingly impossible, but she is not content with just that.
She said she hopes to dance again on “Dancing with the Stars.”
The fact that Adrienne was dancing again was well covered on Twitter:
Inspiring and beautiful. http://t.co/xHwqlHMBUF
— Jackie Savi-Cannon (@JackieRNR) March 20, 2014
A first dance, on a next-generation bionic limb—I was teary eyed while photographing this talk http://t.co/pbKWc8waWO via @wordpressdotcom
— Duncan Davidson (@duncan) March 20, 2014
Less than a year after losing her leg in the Boston Marathon bombing, Adrianne Haslet-Davis danced again. Amazing. http://t.co/fFHDWX3SUr
— Amanda Grinavich (@agrinavich) March 20, 2014
(The photo above shows Adrianne with Professor Hugh Herr on her left, and her dance partner, Christian Lightner on her right. It was issued by TED 2014 Conference,)
