ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 11, 1996 TAG: 9608090102
SECTION: DISCOVER ROANOKE VALLEY PAGE: 22 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MICHAEL CROAN STAFF WRITER
All Lynn Hampton really wants to do is dance.
Before 1993, the 27-year-old Roanoke dance instructor breezed through her routines with ease, not even realizing how gifted, how talented, how blessed she was with athleticism and grace.
But after a serious car accident nearly took one of her legs, and almost her life, Hampton learned never to take anything for granted, never to settle for less than her best and never to give up. Hers is a tale of grit, determination, and the power of the human spirit.
Hampton's story began years ago when she first fell in love with dance.
Her mother, Ardell Stone, has run a dance studio in Roanoke for the past 30 years and Hampton made as many lessons as she could.
Eventually, Hampton's youthful determination paid off.
She left Cave Spring High School in 1987 with experience in ballet, tap, jazz and point dance, and attended James Madison University where she majored in dance and communications.
After graduating from college, she received scholarships and grants from JMU and from interested dance associations and spent several summers learning from some of the best dance instructors in the country. Dance took Hampton from New York to Los Angeles, from Chicago to Hollywood.
The students she taught at her mother's studio won national competitions and performed for international audiences, teachers and judges.
Dance was Hampton's world. But on Sept. 6, 1993, the day before her new classes were to begin in Roanoke, she suffered a major setback.
Hampton was on her way home from a whitewater rafting trip in West Virginia when the car she was in skidded the length of a football field down Interstate 77, dropped 75 feet over the edge of a cliff, and flipped two-and-a half times.
"I landed on the opposite side of the car and my [left] leg was turned around backwards," said Hampton, who was riding in the backseat. Her thighbone was shattered.
After being airlifted to a West Virginia hospital and eventually brought to Roanoke Memorial, "they inserted a rod from my hip to my knee," she said, an operation that meant some of her leg muscles had to be severed.
The rod was held by three metal pins, one above the hip and two above the knee. Without the rod Hampton would have been in a hip-to-toe cast for at least 6 months.
Either way, her leg was rendered useless.
"They had to teach me how to bend my leg again and how to lift my leg. I couldn't lift my leg to get out of bed. I had to sit in a lawn chair to take a shower," she said.
"For a long time I was in shock," she added. "Not to be able to walk, to drive yourself to the store, is a big shock when you're 24. It's real easy to take things for granted."
Hampton spent eight days in the hospital because of the accident, which left her with a broken arm as well. "I didn't see myself for three days and I think that's why I was so cheery, because I didn't know how bad I looked," she said.
But even with mirrors lining every wall of her studio, Hampton did not lose heart. Within a month she was teaching her students again, this time from a wheelchair with the aid of a demonstrator.
"I came back [to the studio] and I saw all the kids leaping and kicking and jumping and I couldn't do that. That probably gave me more determination, because I knew I could do all those things before the accident, and I wanted to do them again. I never thought about not doing it."
That meant a lot of hard work and a lot of pain for Hampton. She began physical therapy three to five days a week for a year, and twice a week the following year. She didn't go out of necessity, but because her drive and her desire to dance again demanded it.
"I was always going to physical therapy saying, `I can't do this and I need to do this, so help me,''' Hampton said. "I need to be able to hold my leg up on my ear," she told her trainers.
"A dancer needs more than average flexibility and average strength," she continued, explaining that she wanted to be able to put her legs at a 180-degree angle, not the normal 90-degree angle her therapists worked for.
What kept her coming back to therapy, despite the pain, despite the disappointment? Her students, she said.
"I knew they were here waiting on me and counting on me because there was no one else to teach them," she said. "Hopefully I'll be able to teach for 20 more years, but it might be five, it might be today. I just don't know. That's why I try to do as much as I can now, because there are no guarantees."
Hampton still feels the effects of her injuries. Just two months ago she couldn't walk when a golf-ball sized swelling appeared on her knee.
Surgery to remove two pins from her knee solved that problem - permanently, Hampton hopes.
However, Hampton doesn't let things like that get her down. In fact, she believes the overall experience has left her a new and perhaps improved person.
"It's been really hard on me," she said, "and to be quite honest, I think I got depressed, but I think it's made me a lot stronger in the long run. You know what they say, `Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger.'''
LENGTH: Medium: 95 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: WAYNE DEEL STAFF Lynn Stone Hampton says her danceby CNBstudents were the driving forces behind her rehabilitation. color