Chelsie, Sam, Steph, Edna, Maria, Morgan and Sara.
Chelsie Hill, 17, was part of her High School dance team. She was only three months away from graduation when she was involved in a car accident with some friends which left her paralyzed from the waist down.
Chelsie as a young dance competitor Image:today.com
Hill said, “When it first happened, I was like, ‘OK, how am I going to get dressed? How am I going to do this?'”. But I always knew I would dance again.”
Only two years after being released from hospital, Hill organised a dance show with some other women who she’d met from the wheelchair community. It was this that sparked the idea for a Wheelchair Dance Team!
The Rollettes were launched by Hill in 2012 and have been spending time performing across the country at different festivals and expos. They will be dancing at the upcoming Wings For Life World Run in California, with the aim of raising funds for spinal cord research.
The Dance Team in action
Hill has emphasised the importance of the team and the feeling it gives her knowing she can travel around with best friends and not feel any different.
“Of course there are things I miss being able to feel — leaps and kicks and backflips,” Hill said. “But when I’m performing, I still feel the same rush that I used to. And when I go on stage, I don’t feel my chair. I don’t feel different. I’m just dancing, and that’s where my heart is.”
Read more about Chelsie Hill’s next dream… The E.P.I.C. Project
Written by April Foster
#EveryoneCanDance