Boston Marathon Bomb Survivor Dances Again With Help Of Prosthetic Leg

Adrianne Haslet-Davis wowed at the TED2014 conference

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by Sophie Wilkinson |
Published on

A survivor of the Boston Marathon bombings has taken to the stage to perform at a TED talk. But professional dancer and dance teacher Adrianne Haslet-Davis didn't start the talk by, um, talking. Instead, she let her body do the talking by performing a rumba to Enrique Iglesias' Ring My Bells with dance partner Christian Lightner.

What's the big deal? Well, Adrianne, lost part of her leg during the terrorist attack on 15 April last year. However, thanks to her resilience and a specially designed prosthetic leg, she was able to dance.

The leg was designed by Hugh Herr, whose studio designs prostheses. He himself lost his legs in a climbing accident aged just 17.

'I'm thrilled to have danced again,' Adrianne said after her performance at the TED Conference in Vancouver, Canada. 'It was invigorating to dance publicly with my new leg, but also to realise that my return to dance may have the power to inspire other people to reach for their goals and be proactive in their lives.

'I was always determined to dance again, and I knew that I had to, that I would and here I am.' ITV News reports her as saying. 'My first dance happening to be so near the anniversary of the marathon bombing stands as a reminder that I'm a survivor, not a victim.'

What a lovely, uplifting story! We'll have a forage for the video and post it here if it gets published.

Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson

This article originally appeared on The Debrief.

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