Mobile Bodies: Re-Imagining Design through a Dance Lens M.Morris

Academic article published in the Journal of Technology and Innovation (2019) - discusses how the dance domain can fuel innovative practices in assistive technology. Dance paired with disability enlivens new ways of seeing and approaching design. The dancer pictured on the front of the journal is Liu Yan, renowned dancer from Beijing, China, who is a professor at the Beijing Dance Academy. I brought her to the University of South Florida to work with me and the Rolling the Dance Chair Project and perform/teach for "A New Definition of Dance," (2015/16), an initiative re-defining and challenging dance norms. Photo courtesy of Tom Kramer.
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/nai/ti/2019/00000021/00000001/art00005

Tedx talk - Merry Lynn Morris "Challenging Perceptions with Dance"

In this Tedx talk, I discuss the ways in which dancers with disabilities challenge traditional assumptions about what the dancing body should look like and what it should do. Disability dance is catalyzing new forms of creativity in the dance field and pushing the field forward in multiple ways.
A short duet of my choreography follows, performed by Dwayne Scheuneman and Caitlyn Elie.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqO0nKF6GRk

International Dance Artist Liu Yan Testing Rolling Dance Chair with Merry Lynn Morris

International Dance Artist Liu Yan and her family came to the US to develop feedback in testing the latest prototype of the Rolling Dance Chair Project founded and designer patented by Merry Lynn Morris.

Merry Lynn Morris assists Liu Yan in latest Rolling Dance Chair prototype during VSA of Florida dance week event: "A New Definition of Dance" with Cynthia Frances Hardegree and Liu Yan's dad. {Photo Courtesy of Tom Kramer Dance Photographer}

International Dance Artist Liu Yan rehearses during VSA of Florida dance week event "A New Definition of Dance" with Merry Lynn Morris, Artistic Director. [Photo courtesy of Tom Kramer Dance Photographer]

We are so honored that Liu Yan and her family came to Tampa to work with us and be part of a new dance vision. ... -  and also that this is a first trip to America - an honor to have them here!

The video chronicles Liu Yan's first day in a week-long event of workshops and performances sponsored by VSA of Florida called: "A New Definition of Dance" in Tampa Florida with Merry Lynn Morris. A final performance  is Friday October 16, 2015 8:00PM at the University of South Florida Theatre 2, Merry Lynn Morris, Artistic Director. Here is the VSA link for the event: VSA of Florida Presents: "A New Definition of Dance"

(As a note to understand Liu Yan's interest in the Rolling Dance Chair Project and more on her background:  Liu Yan, a classical Chinese dancer, was chosen as the lead dancer in the Beijing 2008 Olympics opening ceremony.  Unfortunately, during a rehearsal, Ms. Liu was severely injured from a malfunctioning stage device which damaged her spinal cord leaving her paralyzed and now in a wheelchair.)

 https://youtu.be/ryC3wBD5QfA

We are so grateful for the support of VSA of Florida in making this event and collaboration possible! Also - many thanks to Dance Photographers Tom Kramer and James Michael Lennon / Lennon Media, Inc. Thank you, too for invaluable assistance from Dancer Cynthia Frances Hardegree ! 

With Love - Best to all, Merry Lynn Morris & Sonshine!




(A brief rehearsal snippet of the above video is here:  https://youtu.be/5SYikzEWjwQ )

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!

CARDBOARD BICYCLES & WHEELCHAIR INVENTION INNOVATION!

CARDBOARD Bicycles & wheelchairs for poor! Izhar Gafni - Israeli Inventor in Tel Aviv bases inventions on origami! INCREDIBLE INNOVATION & ALL FROM RECYCLE!  The cost is only $9. ( $ Nine dollars ! ) The Inventor was inspired after he saw a Cardboard Canoe - sealed for waterproofing. We are so excited for the Cardboard Wheelchair especially in terms of lightness, expense, innovation, & portability - especially for the Caregiver! PTL! ...  here is video direct link: http://videodelivery.msnbc.msn.com/now/stitched/mp4/3aaae01e-e0f4-439d-aa7a-8d5e3e774105/00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000/3a41c6e4-93a3-4108-8995-64ffca7b9106/5c9c1a03-5f4b-4067-b282-5d6b576da7aa/0/0/153/-1230659163/p_fot_cardboard_091112.mp4 

.....................................................................................

Another incredible, brave & beautiful invention is an underwater wheelchair by Sue Austin, Artist..... link to her website:  http://www.susanaustin.co.uk/

Artist Sue Austin has been in an wheelchair since 1996. With the support of scuba-diving experts, Austin has created a wheelchair fit with a propeller and fins that enable her to steer the wheelchair underwater. This wheelchair is part of her ongoing project called ‘Freewheeling’, which focuses on the intersection of art and disability.

She has also invented an Artist's "Paint" Wheelchair!  Her philosophical motivations come from a desire to re-define the ways to see Art with Disability.  Quoting from her website:

" 

Sue Austin is a multimedia, performance and installation artist. Over an extended period of time her practice has operated as a vehicle to open up a thinking space around the materiality of the wheelchair. This is being used as a metaphor to raise questions about the value of diversity to society through raising the profile of ‘difference’.  

Rather than being didactic, however, a primary aim will be to create portals or multiple entrances into the resulting artwork (eg. through live art, associated online and multi-platform presentation, etc) so that it can find a way to ask questions but at the same time leave space for the audience to generate their own meanings. She aims to find dramatic and powerful ways to re-position disability and Disability Arts as the ‘Hidden Secret’. She argues that this ‘secret’, if explored, valued and then shared, can act to heal the divisions created in the social psyche by cultural dichotomies that define the ‘disabled’ as ‘other’."

....................................................................

Wow! All of these innovations are awesome to consider as our world continues to be in such need.  Wonderful - ALL the POSSIBILITIES - endless & incredible!

Love,

Sonshine & Merry Lynn Morris

Opening Day Paralympics Opening Hearts & Minds

Today 8/29/2012 is the WORLD WIDE Opening Day of the London 2012 PARALYMPICS! The exposure is much greater this time and is expected to attract 4 billion viewers! Amazing!  It began in 1948 to help rehabilitate the wounded from World War II. What it represents to us - is AWESOME and INCREDIBLE PEOPLE !

http://youtu.be/mGTzNS183ZY

Some of the best coverage will be from London Channel 4 UK.  They have an INCREDIBLE opening 1 minute video.... here is the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKTamH__xuQ

NBC.com has full coverage and an excellent article with several videos on blind soccer, blind swimming, wheelchair rugby, etc... with histories and personal stories:.... here is the link http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/29/13527993-meet-the-superhumans-paralympians-burst-onto-world-stage?lite

It is hopeful that in 2016 DanceSport will be in both Summer Olympics & Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.... DanceSport / Ballroom Dance / Wheelchair Dance has already been approved since 1997 for the Olympics as a category, however worldwide popularity must also be a component.  South America especially seems perfect to host ballroom dance events! Looking forward to the new innovations of Wheelchair Dance Invention over the next four years! This is a wonderful time and it is SO AWESOME to finally see disability embraced and recognized WORLD WIDE - instead of shunning, blaming, and shaming!  I am so proud to be counted as supporting those among us who God considers the greatest who are the least in the world - my husband! PTL! .... Such are any of us the same through time & happenstance.

Love,

His Sonshine with Merry Lynn Morris

Four Days of Dance!

"Define or Be Defined" Merry Lynn Morris, Choreographer
Performed at FOUR DAYS OF DANCE Ybor Campus of HCC

http://youtu.be/ES5_M7FwDWI

This piece was chosen at the Four Days of Dance Choreographer Showcase at Hillsborough Community College Ybor Campus.  "Define or Be Defined" is about changing minds and viewpoints in life - it isn't always what is measured out..... one should be ready to step outside the box.  The boxes were a unique design for stage by me in collaboration with the School of Architecture at USF.  This piece was reworked with some new dancers in mixed-ability.  I was grateful to have the opportunity to showcase the innovation with these wonderful dancers of REVolutions Dance Company!  Looking forward to more!

Best,
Merry Lynn Morris

The incredible photography of Tom Kramer ! And the Lighting Design by Keith Arsenault ! Stunning results! Thank You to All!

"Define Or Be Defined" from FOUR DAYS OF DANCE
Merry Lynn Morris, Choreographer / Tom Kramer, Photographer

"Define Or Be Defined" from FOUR DAYS OF DANCE
Merry Lynn Morris, Choreographer / Tom Kramer, Photographer

"Define Or Be Defined" from FOUR DAYS OF DANCE
Merry Lynn Morris, Choreographer / Tom Kramer, Photographer

"Define Or Be Defined" from FOUR DAYS OF DANCE
Merry Lynn Morris, Choreographer / Tom Kramer, Photographer

"Define Or Be Defined" from FOUR DAYS OF DANCE
Merry Lynn Morris, Choreographer / Tom Kramer, Photographer

"Define Or Be Defined" from FOUR DAYS OF DANCE
Merry Lynn Morris, Choreographer / Tom Kramer, Photographer

Dance Chair Innovation - Patent Receives International Notice

USF Dance Professor Merry Lynn Morris invented a wheelchair  that allows people to express themselves through movements such as dancing.
{Jim Reed - Photographer Tampa Tribune Staff - Copyright 2011}
http://www2.tbo.com/news/education-news/2011/jul/30/menewso1-usf-gains-international-notice-for-record-ar-247333/

Recently, the Dance Chair with Merry Lynn Morris was featured by Channel 8 & also made the front page of the Tampa Tribune.  The above link is the News Article link with Photos & the Video link. The News Video from Tampa Tribune Video is embedded below.  We are very grateful for the notice & the continuing publicity on our project!  The following is a selected excerpt from the full article which can be found at:  http://www2.tbo.com/news/education-news/2011/jul/30/menewso1-usf-gains-international-notice-for-record-ar-247333/ 

http://www2.tbo.com/news/2011/aug/09/1/usf-patents-reflect-studentsx2019-inn-76341-vi-23646/

{Selected Excerpt from Tampa Tribune Article - Published / Copyright 7/30/2011}

Six years ago, University of South Florida dance professor Merry Lynn Morris approached a couple of engineering professors with an idea.

How can you make a wheelchair move more like a human?

Today, Morris and six former USF engineering students hold a patent on her idea. It's one of 83 last year that put the school at No. 9 among universities worldwide earning U.S. patents.

"It's a huge validation of the work you do, which can take years," Morris said.

The ranking comes from the Intellectual Property Owners Association's annual list of the Top 300 U.S. patent recipients in the world. IBM had the most for 2010, with 5,866.

USF was one of 14 universities on the list. The University of California Regents led that pack, with 349 patents.

"We've really worked to change the culture here," said USF's Paul Sanberg, holder of about 30 U.S. patents, including the first for using cord blood and bone marrow for stem cells used in brain repair.

Two years ago, Sanberg launched the National Academy of Inventors at USF, to recognize patent-holders and their work.

Patenting is a key step in turning a discovery into something people can use, Sanberg said. But the process hasn't traditionally been part of universities' academic mission.

That's changing.

"Universities are having to become more focused on real-world economics, so you're seeing more of them trying to take advantage of their intellectual property," he said.

With its 83, USF received more than twice as many patents last year as it did three years ago.

The 2010 patent list shows a breadth of inventions, from wheelchairs for disabled dancers to new ways to test the acidy of seawater to a self-guided roller coaster ride.

Morris had been rolling her idea over in her mind for years before she visited College of Engineering professors...

Her father was disabled in a car accident when she was 12, and Morris helped take care of him, so she was intimately familiar with the limits of life in a wheelchair. Some were societal, but many existed because of the chair's clunky design.

Always a dancer, Morris began to envision a chair that would allow someone to express themselves through movement, freeing hands and arms from having to push a wheel or joystick.

The USF engineers were intrigued. So in 2006, {her project} was assigned to several students to work with Morris. It took about a year to develop a working prototype. In June 2008, USF filed for the patent, which came through last summer.

The invention is a system that uses sensors on the seat that tell the chair to move forward, backward or sideways with small upper-body shifts.

Morris knew the discovery process would be a challenge, but she had no idea of how legalistic it would get, she said.

In the end, though, that process was useful.

"You have to put everything on paper and show what role this person played and what role that person played. You have to be really clear."

Those credits really matter when the invention gets to where the dance chair is now, with a potential manufacturer showing interest.

The patent belongs to USF, which filed the application, but as one of the listed inventors, Morris would share any income from product sales, as would the six others named in the application.

Right now, Morris is focused not so much on sales but getting the chairs to people who could use them.

She's been corresponding with a woman who has a disabled child and started a dance studio to help her. She's also working with injured war veterans.

As Morris and the engineers find further refinements, they're likely to get more patents.

VERLEZZA DANCE COMPANY DEBUTS NEW DANCE CHAIR WITH MERRY LYNN MORRIS

Sabatino Verlezza w/ Verlezza Dance Company Dancers

Tracy Pattison / Amara Romano / Marcie Ryan & w/ Merry Lynn Morris

Verlezza Dance Company in Theatre2 USF
with Merry Lynn Morris

Sabatino Verlezza with Verlezza Dance Company Dancers
Tracy Pattison / Marcie Ryan / Amara Romano

Dream-like Weekend with Verlezza Dance Company
Dancing with Prototypes I & II  (Debut) w/ Merry Lynn Morris


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1Y84Fgto_E

It was a very dream-like weekend with the incredible debut of the Hands-Free Dance Chair of the Rolling Dance Chair Project - initiated from 2005 by me as Design Patent Inventor - with my work in mixed-ability dance & also from the inspiration of my disabled Father.

Verlezza Dance Company of Ohio flew down to "debut" the new somewhat "working" Dance Chair.  We all held our breath to hope nothing technical would go wrong for the long but lovely weekend!  The Dance Chairs kept being "tweaked" while we all ventured into some amazing ideas of balance & movement with the chairs - including double-ups & standing-up!  Interviews & news coverage attempted to document the project to this point - but which never succeeded in the true understanding of the fact that it has been way too long in making anything work for those who are "waiting in the wings"  - ask Verlezza Dancers - Sabatino Verlezza, Marcie Ryan, & Amara Romano!  Recently, however, I have made an Artistic as well as Financial Decision - to fast-track the manufacture of this wonderful DANCE CHAIR - to make "dreaming" - a REALITY! - after almost 12 years! - I think it is time!  Thank you God!

Looking forward to working soon again with the very wonderful Sabatino Verlezza & his gifted Assistant Artistic Director - Tracy Pattison!  Verlezza Company Dancers - Amara Romano & Marcie Ryan gave incredible feedback to our moving dimensional goals!

Thank You ALL who made this weekend possible.  It has taken years, but I am glad to have made it this far - definitely feels like I am dreaming!  .... The manufacture of three more hands-free dance chairs - is very close to happening!

God Bless to all - and hope to keep dreaming!

w/love - Merry Lynn Morris