Saturday, December 21, 2013

Rolling Dance Chair on DAYTIME SHOW WFLA with Merry Lynn Morris

It was a real honor to have the Rolling Dance Chair showcased on the DAYTIME SHOW - WFLA Tampa, Florida.  Merry Lynn Morris was interviewed by hosts Cyndi Edwards and Jerry Penacoli, while Dwayne Scheuneman demonstrated the Dance Chair with Merry Lynn.  Here is the video interview: http://youtu.be/sHvLDbU2uR4




From The Daytime Show link which aired 12/19/2013: 

"Merry Lynn Morris from the University of South Florida joins us to tell us more about the Rolling Dance/Mobility Chair project.  This project was started to allow disabled individuals to be able to express themselves through dance, but has morphed into the development of a chair that gives the disabled unprecedented mobility.  This is a great conversation on how working to solve a specific problem can unexpectedly solve larger, general problems."

Thank You Daytime Show and hosts and producer Deanna Moore! http://www.daytimeonline.tv/ 

We appreciate all your wonderful efforts to get the info out!

Merry Lynn Morris & Sonshine


Monday, October 28, 2013

Merry Lynn Morris on Craig Melvin "BIG IDEA"

As resources go... while Merry Lynn Morris was in Texas on two presentations and teaching Ballet Master Classes at two Universities - Texas A&M and TWU  - MSNBC Craig Melvin interviewed Merry Lynn in Dallas, Texas about the latest news on the Rolling Dance Chair Project!  Bravo to Craig Melvin and MSNBC for making all the spectacular arrangements to get this info out! Amazing timing also and to the driver in getting her there for the interview! .... Very grateful! Thank you Craig Melvin and Dominique Mann of MSNBC and NBC Universal!


with Love

Sonshine (and Merry Lynn) Morris

here follows the video as downloaded from MSNBC:  


on youtube at:  http://youtu.be/lxi1s8XBB_A









Wednesday, October 23, 2013

EXCELLENCE IN INNOVATION AWARD - Merry Lynn Morris 2013 National Academy of Inventors

It was such a privilege to accept the award on behalf of Merry Lynn Morris on 10/21/2013 for the EXCELLENCE IN INNOVATION AWARD for 2013 by the NATIONAL ACADEMY OF INVENTORS for her ROLLING DANCE CHAIR PROJECT AND INVENTION! Dr. Paul R. Sanberg and President of USF Judy Genshaft presented the award with a beautiful plaque!  A wonderful experience for me while Merry Lynn spends her time teaching and presenting in Texas:  Texas A & M  University (TAMU) - three days of intensive Ballet Master Classes with Modern and Improvisation ~ and also graduate studies/presentation at Texas Woman's University (TWU) near Dallas, Texas! Thank you to everyone in coordinating all the presentations and events!

with Love,
Sonshine (and Merry Lynn) Morris




Excellence in Innovation Award for Merry Lynn Morris 2013 National Academy of Inventors
Accepting the Award is Mrs. William R. Morris (Sonshine) - Mom
with President of University of South Florida Judy Genshaft and
President of National Academy of Inventors Dr. Paul R. Sanberg
Photographer is: ©Aimee Blodgett/USF/2013
 
THANK YOU TO ALL!!! 


Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Dance Chair Mention on Katie Couric Show!

It was a wonderful honor to have the Rolling Dance Chair mentioned and viewed on the Katie Couric Show for 10/16/2013!  In a segment called Daniel's List, Katie talks about Merry Lynn Morris and her invention while she shows video and pictures of the new prototype 3. The video clip coverage for the Dance Chair begins 55 seconds in.....




Link to the video - "Daniel's List: 22 Acts of Kindness" : http://katiecouric.com/videos/daniels-list-22-acts-of-kindness/

VSA Florida Presents Scott MacIntyre

I serve on the Board of Directors for VSA Florida (Very Special Arts) and I am so excited that we brought Scott MacIntyre (the first blind finalist on American Idol) - to USF for a performance 10/18/2013! And, especially grateful to REVolutions Dance for donating as a sponsor for this event!

With Love and Appreciation!
Merry Lynn Morris


An evening you won't want to miss that includes an exhibition of tactile artwork by Horst Mueller, a concert by Scott MacIntyre, the first blind finalist on American Idol and an opportunity to show your support for VSA Florida.


Merry Lynn Morris on University Beat WUSF

Here is the latest interview coverage on the Rolling Dance Chair Project with Merry Lynn Morris, designer / patent inventor for the new prototype 3.  University Beat at USF link includes both video and an audio / radio interview:
USF Dance instructor Merry Lynn Morris dances with Jessica Hendricks, who sits in Morris' invention, the Rolling Dance Chair.

The latest model of the "Rolling Dance Chair"


From the interview:
It’s a high-tech device getting national attention—and it’s not the invention of an engineer, but of a dancer! University Beat on WUSF TV introduces you to USF Professor Merry Lynn Morris and her Rolling Dance Chair, which lets people with disabilities dance.





Here is the video http://youtu.be/LvstaT920Rs :




Here is more interview from WUSF on more aspects of the Dance Chair:  http://youtu.be/67UVgZoMWJc


Friday, October 11, 2013

Explaining Dance Chair Features

The new prototype Dance Chair was first tried by Dancers - Marcie Ryan and Frank Hull in May 2013.  It was a magical day for everyone!  Merry Lynn Morris explains the features while Marcie and Frank express their feelings and feedback!  Really - the looks on their faces say it all!!! One thing to mention is that the seat is completely and INSTANTLY changed out to accommodate anyone with their needs or innovation at the time... with 3D manufacturing - it will be perfect in a moment!  Thank you Marcie and Frank for making the long trip to Tampa, Florida for an amazing experience! We also are appreciative of all the efforts in working together so long.... with our private developers Visual Realm (Mark Rumsey) and Vertec (Rudy Bray & Neil Edmonston). .... And the journey continues!

With Love and Appreciation!
Sonshine and Merry Lynn Morris


(Here is the YouTube link:  http://youtu.be/TUIutrx-0sc )




Friday, September 27, 2013

From the Mind of a Dancer Comes a New Kind of Wheelchair ....

INVENTION HAS PEOPLE DANCING IN THEIR SEATS:  A beautiful article relates the newest Dancing Chair prototype which Stephanie Hayes of the Tampa Bay Times covered and we are so grateful for getting the latest info out! Thank You! Thank You! Hoping this creates the opportunities for all it is meant to do!  (Video link:  http://video.tampabay.com/Invention-has-people-dancing-in-their-seats-25186815 ) 



(From this Article Channel 8 and other stations around the U.S. picked up on the story with their own video coverage:  http://youtu.be/ecVWXkO68gA   on YouTube or here:)



Photos from Article:


Dance teacher Merry Lynn Morris and George Elliott, 5, use her electronic dance wheelchair during a mixed-ability dance class at USF.
Dance teacher Merry Lynn Morris and George Elliott, 5, use her electronic dance wheelchair during a mixed-ability dance class
Ella Branscombe, 7, of Clearwater sits in the Rolling Dance Chair invented by dance teacher Merry Lynn Morris.
Ella Branscombe, 7, of Clearwater sits in the Rolling Dance Chair invented by dance teacher Merry Lynn Morris.
Merry Lynn Morris works with students during her mixed-ability dance class in August at USF in Tampa.
Merry Lynn Morris works with students during her mixed-ability dance class in August at USF in Tampa.
“Whoa. This is fun,” says Jessica Hendricks, 7, who has spina bifida and is used to a small traditional wheelchair.
“Whoa. This is fun,” says Jessica Hendricks, 7, who has spina bifida and is used to a small traditional wheelchair.
Bill Morris holds his ballerina daughter, Merry Lynn Morris, in this undated family photo.
William Morris holds his ballerina daughter, Merry Lynn Morris, in this undated family photo

Here is the text of the article:

TAMPA — The kids released their wheelchairs and leg braces, the sticks that help them see and the iPads that help them speak, and piled them in a corner.

They went to Merry Lynn Morris, with her twisting blond hair and legs like a ballerina in a jewelry box. She helped them stretch and rubbed their bellies.

"Reach your arms all the way up," she said. "Look to the sky, and say thank you!"

Morris is a dance professor at the University of South Florida, and more recently, an inventor. She was introducing kids with spina bifida and cerebral palsy to a chair she dreamed up. On this weekend in their class, the chair would let them dance. Not pretend to dance, not be pulled by a dancer, but actually dance.

The kids peered at it, standing tall in the corner of the studio.

Anybody in any body should have the right to dance, Morris said. An accident or a disability needn't relegate the people you love to your back, pushing you, telling you where to go.

If her father had been able to use this chair, he might have danced again, too.

The Rolling Dance Chair was born from the brain of a dancer, not an engineer. It has taken seven years and $150,000 of grant money to get to this point, evolving from a stripped down Segway — those rolling devices that tour groups ride through cities — to a sleek, elegant design.

It's getting closer to what Morris imagined, getting more attention from the world each year. U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, a double amputee, tried the chair on a visit to USF in 2010. In October, Morris will present her invention at the Smithsonian Institution during a conference for innovators, speaking alongside the press secretary from NASA and the deputy director of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The chair is stately with a synthetic round seat that's clear, designed to almost disappear under the dancer. It is sturdy enough for a second dancer to stand on, spinning, leg extended in full arabesque.

The most important feature of the chair is the person sitting in it. He is in control. When he leans, the chair moves. The wheels can propel the chair in any direction using the slightest movement of a body.

It's an extension of dance, Morris said, not an obstacle. No one thinks twice about a tap shoe, or a ballet shoe with a wooden block on the end. Think of Broadway dances, the rolling desk chairs and elaborate sets. Think of the hoops and flames of Cirque du Soleil.

People have a harder time getting past a wheelchair.

"You create these devices and people are frightened of them," said Morris, 38. "Get out of the way, here comes the wheelchair user."

Reality doesn't have to be so black and white, and dance doesn't have to be so exact. It's something she has learned over the years.

"The manifestation of this project is sort of my whole way of being in the world," she said. "It has been shaped by the desire to bring multiple realities together."

• • •

Morris was a dancer from the start. She had strong ankles and uncanny leg extension. She also loved to take things apart, ride her bike with no hands and try every piece of equipment on the playground.

She enjoyed the rigid instruction of ballet, the structure it provided. But she also loved when her dad danced silly with her, tossed her in the air, threw his head back and let loose one of his wild belly laughs.

Bill Morris was a man of God, his family said, a Gideon who distributed free Bibles, a Navy veteran. He was starting a marketing business with his wife, whose name was Catherine but whom he nicknamed Sonshine when they first met at a prayer meeting. They said he rescued animals and people, bringing in those who needed a place to stay.

When Merry Lynn Morris was 12, she and her father painted her room in their Tampa home a sunny yellow. She remembers him leaving to go get more paint, but he didn't return. His car was hit head on, his family said. He was in a coma, and the doctors didn't think he would survive. The accident left him with a severe brain injury, a blind eye, a broken hip and a shattered knee. After seizures set in, he had intermittent paralysis and was mostly confined to a wheelchair.

They took him ballroom dancing for therapy and got him to try standing between ballet bars.

"The dancing stimulated him the most," said Sonshine Morris. "He was beaming. He would smile."

He didn't understand basic things — that you need an umbrella in the rain, for example. But he could answer obscure questions on Jeopardy! or say something deeply philosophical.

They tried every chair they could find, from power chairs with joysticks to simple soft shell models. The chairs all had drawbacks, elements that felt cage-like and separate.

Merry Lynn Morris danced in a professional ballet company and studied at USF and Florida State. She rarely meshed her dance world and home life. The crisp rules of dance, the exacting finger positions and postures, were a respite from the complicated reality.

"They didn't really feel like they connected," she said. "Later, I kind of realized that people recognize that life is bigger, and there are important things, and you can share those things."

As for Sonshine, she dreamed her husband and daughter might dance together one more time, that he might fly across the stage with her little girl.

• • •

Morris has long been drawn to "mixed ability" dance, kinesiology, ways to combine dance and science. For years, she has worked with REVolutions Dance, a company for dancers with and without disabilities, which offers weekly dance classes for kids.

In 2000, she saw a performance by wheelchair dancers and noticed how they had to pump the wheels, how the chair was more of a distraction than a seamless part of the movement.

She and her mother spent time in the back yard taking apart Bill's old wheelchairs, fashioning them into marionettes, wondering if clamps and sticks and pulls might make the wheels move — might make the chair dance.

In 2005, Morris approached the USF College of Engineering with the idea for a wheelchair that moved with the user's body. The first grant was for $20,000. The college bought two Segways. Students mounted a seat to one.

Another group worked with an existing power chair, reorienting the connection of the joystick. Pressure changes on the seat caused movement similar to a Segway. It was good at first, but like a new pair of shoes giving slow blisters. It was jerky, had trouble stopping.

"The experimentation process in this project is incredibly important," Morris said. "You can theorize in your head all of these kinds of ideas and concepts and things, but then the actuality of being in the chair, is a totally different piece of it."

The chair went to California to a company called Visual Realm, then to Pensacola and a company called Vertec, where developer Neil Edmonston started work. It needed smoother, more intricate controls. Maybe an object that could be strapped to the head or chest of the person in it, programmed to read subtle movements. But also something a caretaker could use in place of pushing. A remote control, in a way.

A smartphone, Edmonston realized, with its ability to respond when a person tilts it. It was the perfect option for this supercharged century, when we're all really just bodies interacting with devices.

"When you have that kind of flexibility, you open yourself to a great deal of opportunities," Edmonston said. "This is a research project that could potentially be very exciting."

Edmonston envisions the chair eventually working like a robotic vacuum cleaner, programmed to know the boundaries of your house, to know that when you unload the dishwasher, you need to move back and to the right to get to the counter.

It could be used for even more than dance. It's what Morris wanted from the start.

"What my mom and I discovered when we were caregivers were the challenges of what disability means," Morris said. "Just navigation through a space that was designed for a 20-year-old able-bodied person, it has really opened my eyes in how we design things, how we make those choices, and why. Who are we thinking about?"

Bill Morris died decades after his accident. But he did get to watch as his daughter's invention took shape. A series of dance performances at USF featured an early incarnation of the Rolling Dance Chair.

He went to three of the shows, watching from the dark wings, mesmerized.

• • •

Merry Lynn Morris helped Jessica Hendricks climb into the Rolling Dance Chair.

The 7-year-old girl with spina bifida had a pink bow in her hair and a tiny, traditional wheelchair in the corner. Morris set controls on a Samsung Galaxy Smartphone and slipped it into a brace against the little girl's chest.

Jessica moved forward. The chair moved forward.

"Whoa," Jessica said. "This is fun. It can turn?"

Jessica moved 45 degrees and the chair spun. Morris hung on, spinning with her, bending deep and extending her leg, and together they flew across the floor.

Stephanie Hayes can be reached at shayes@tampabay.com or (813) 226-3394.


Here is the article link w/video:  http://www.tampabay.com/features/humaninterest/from-the-mind-of-a-dancer-a-new-kind-of-wheelchair/2143164 ( Video and pictures by Eve Edelheit)

Thank you, again Stephanie Hayes and all who cared to see this info become reality in those who look for it!

With Love,\

Merry Lynn Morris (and Sonshine)




Dance Professor Creates Dancing Wheelchair

Another angle to the story for the latest prototype! Could only wish there were more... and to speed the development of all that needs to be done!  Thank you, thank you, .... to all who get the info out!:



http://www.wfla.com/story/23547371/usf-cr



http://youtu.be/ecVWXkO68gA


WFLA Video link:  http://www.wfla.com/story/23547371/usf-cr?autoStart=true&topVideoCatNo=default&clipId=9347493

Here is the text of the article from WFLA Tampa Bay:

From Channel 8 WFLA

USF Creates Dancing Wheelchair
(Video by Rogelio Mares Wednesday 9/25/2013)
By WFLA.com Staff 9/27/2013

TAMPA, FL -
Young Jessica Hendricks was born with Spina bifida. Despite her condition, the energetic outspoken young lady loves to dance.

"I like to make up dances," she said.

That's why the invention of a professor at the University of South Florida is so important to Jessica. It's a wheelchair that gives the user more mobility including the ability to dance.

It uses body movement as opposed to standard hand controls to manipulate the chair's movement. It was invented by dance professor Merry Lynn Morris. Morris says she came up with the idea eight years ago, growing up with a disable father.

"It's about creativity, it's about expression, it's about movement and connection," Morris said.

With the help of USF engineering students and grants from around the country, Morris' vision became a reality. Currently, there is only the one prototype but Morris hopes to find a company willing to produce and market the chairs.

As for Jessica, she says she loves the chair and the mobility it gives her allowing her to dance.

"It's fun being in this wheelchair," Jessica said.



We are ALL grateful for the media in getting this info out to inspire and hopefully speed the opportunities to ALL who benefit!

With Love,
Merry Lynn Morris (and Sonshine Morris)





Special Chair Lets Disabled Dance

The latest innovative Rolling Dance Chair prototype - from the College of the Arts and Merry Lynn Morris - receives publicity nationwide: http://www.wwlp.com/news/national/special-chair-lets-disabled-dance

NC_dancingchair0926_mezzn_1380245198030.jpg


http://youtu.be/ecVWXkO68gA


Here is the article in text:

From Channel 22 WWLP National News NBC (Western Massachusetts)
http://www.wwlp.com/news/national/special-chair-lets-disabled-dance

Special Chair Lets Disabled Dance
By Rogelio Mares, WFLA / 9/26/2013

TAMPA, FL (NBC) - Young Jessica Hendricks was born with Spina bifida. Despite her condition, the energetic outspoken young lady loves to dance.

That's why the invention of a professor at the University of South Florida is so important to Jessica. It’s a wheelchair that gives the user more mobility including the ability to dance. It uses body movement as opposed to standard hand controls to manipulate the chair's movement.

It was invented by dance professor Merry Lynn Morris. Morris says she came up with the idea eight years ago, growing up with a disable father. With the help of USF engineering students and grants from around the country, Morris' vision became a reality.

Currently, there is only the one prototype but Morris hopes to find a company willing to produce and market the chairs. As for Jessica, she says she loves the chair and the mobility it gives her allowing her to dance.



So grateful for the coverage to get the info out!

with Love,
Merry Lynn Morris (and Sonshine Morris)



Diversity Award 2012-13

Many things.... awards, recognition, publicity.... These are all wonderful to appreciate. But, our blog is about trying to inform and re-connect to all, as the future posts reflect. Merry Lynn Morris received a "Diversity Award" from noting her commitment to disability from her own Father's 21 years of Disability. It is an honor and privilege to be so noted in many things!:  Here is the link and award from University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida in April / 2013 :  http://www.arts.usf.edu/content/templates/?a=3661&z=68&utm_source=ArtsInsight&utm_medium=email&utm_content=link&utm_campaign=AI-2013-04-04


Dance faculty member and academic advisor Merry Lynn Morris will receive a 2012-13 Diversity Award from the USF Office of Diversity and Equal Opportunity. The award will be presented at the annual USF Diversity Summit, on Tuesday, April 9, 2013. The theme of this year’s summit is Paths to Success: Student Growth, Innovations and Solutions. Morris was recognized for “her tireless efforts to champion accessibility and inclusion.”

Here is an excerpt from her nomination by Dr. David Owens, USF’s ADA Coordinator:

“Her inspiration has brought about the synergy of adaptive technologies with the expressive movement, emotion and freedom of Dance of persons with mixed abilities. She has shown that Dance can shatter the stereotyping of persons in a wheelchair. Her goal has always been to “get beyond the chair”… that just holds the person …but adds to the quality of life to all involved.”

“Morris was inspired to create the chair after years of caring for her severely disabled father; William Morris who was critically injured in a car accident and spent 21 years in traditional hand-operated wheelchairs.”


Sunday, June 2, 2013

BREAKING BALLET BARRIERS! DISABILITY IS NEXT! DISABILITY IS NOT A CHOICE!



The first black female ballerina in 20 years at the American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is breaking ballet and dance barriers! BREAKING BARRIERS -DISABILITY IS NEXT! Disability is not a choice!

Without question, Copeland's disenfranchised background of poverty, ethnicity, and now injury.... continues to break barriers to the "aesthetic" appeal of classical ballet!  Unfortunately, ignorant barriers will continue to define the elite paradigm of dance vision by those who remain uneducated or unable to forward their thinking so that ALL may enjoy wellness, health, and quality-of-life.   Copeland's story is amazing and wonderful - that in this era of INCLUSION..... and with her injury leaving her virtually disabled for almost a year! - we can finally hope and believe that the next barrier to dancing out will be for DISABILITY and MIXED ABILITY DANCERS!

Best,
Merry Lynn Morris

"Today, at 30 years old, Misty Copeland is the first black female in two decades to be a soloist at the American Ballet Theatre.  This week, she stars in the Met's production of "Le Corsaire," just eight months after suffering a nearly career-ending injury.  .......... (Copeland) has become an advocate for opening up ballet to minorities and the underprivileged AND HAS COME TO REPRESENT THE FUTURE OF BALLET IN AMERICA:  MORE MODERN, INCLUSIVE, ELASTIC."

FULL ARTICLE:
Dancer Misty Copeland Breaking Ballet Barriers at American Ballet Theatre (ABT) - BREAKING BARRIERS -DISABILITY IS NEXT!  - Disability is not a choice!