“Transforming Spaces”
“Transforming Spaces” is a series about women driving change in sometimes unexpected places.
When Chelsie Hill dances in her wheelchair, her face tells you everything. She is absorbed in the moment beyond the stage, in the emotions she’s conveying, in her power to hold the audience. Her wheelchair is an intrinsic part of her silhouette, one she manipulates with power.
Ms. Hill, 31, is the founder of the Rollettes, a dance team for women who use wheelchairs that formed in 2012. They perform all over the country and host an annual empowerment weekend in Los Angeles for women with disabilities called the Rollettes Experience. In late July, the event attracted 250 women and children from 14 countries to Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Hotel for dance classes, showcases and seminars.
More than a decade after she started the Rollettes, Ms. Hill’s story has spread far beyond the group to include mentorship and education for anyone with a disability who is seeking community.
“She changed my life,” said Ali Stroker, the actress who made Broadway history in 2019 when she became the first performer who uses a wheelchair to win a Tony Award. One of Ms. Hill’s close friends, Ms. Stroker won the Tony, for best featured actress, for her role as Ado Annie in the Broadway revival of the musical “Oklahoma!”
Ms. Stroker, who was paralyzed from the chest down after a car accident when she was 2 years old, said that, growing up, she never had friends who also used chairs. Ms. Hill, she said, is changing lives by extending an invitation to wheelchair users that goes beyond dance.
Moreover, in 2014, four years after her accident, Ms. Hill moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of becoming a professional dancer. She kept going to classes, she said, “because I was like, ‘My passion for dance is so much stronger than what your opinion of me is.’
Ms. Hill is aware that people view businesses like hers as charities, unable to acknowledge the Rollettes through the lens of success. “I have these older men that I have to convince that my company is worth something,” she said.
But still, Ms. Hill perseveres. She has ambitious plans for the future of the Rollettes and is keen to continue sharing her personal story. She has even been asked to be a consultant on a new dance drama film being developed by Disney, “Grace,” which is set to feature a dancer who becomes paralyzed. The film could provide more visibility to the estimated 3.3 million wheelchair users in the United States, a community that often feels invisible. It almost sounds like yet another retelling of Ms. Hill’s story.