“Transforming Spaces” is a series about women driving change in unexpected places. When Chelsie Hill dances in her wheelchair, her face tells you everything. She is fully absorbed in the moment beyond the stage, in the emotions she’s conveying, and in her power to hold the audience. Her wheelchair is an intrinsic part of her silhouette, one she manipulates with power. Hill, 27, 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 the Sheraton Gateway Los Angeles Hotel for dance classes, showcases, and seminars. More than a decade after she started the Rollettes, her 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. Ms. Hill, she said, is changing lives by extending an invitation to wheelchair users that goes beyond dance. 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. “It’s more than dancing. You’re part of this sisterhood, this family. How she can bring people together is out of this world.”
Nearly 14 years ago, Ms. Hill was a 17-year-old champion dancer. But on a night in February 2010, her life changed in ways she could never have imagined when a serious car accident left her with severe spinal injuries and unable to move her lower body. Ms. Hill has always felt compelled to share her story, framing it as a warning. As a teenager intent on becoming a professional dancer, she was haunted by the decisions made on the evening she stepped into the car with a drunken driver. She told her parents from a hospital bed a few weeks after the accident that she wanted to organize an event to discuss it with her classmates.
Growing up in Northern California’s Monterey County, Ms. Hill’s early life was defined by a sense of security and belonging that made her feel invincible. She began competing in dance competitions when she was 5. As a hands-on, physical learner, she found concentrating on academics more difficult. Ms. Hill was a natural performer, and her love for dancing grew over the years.
She has achieved what she set out to do, creating an unrepentantly girly sisterhood that supports others. Through the Rollettes, she has made a tight circle of friends, performed around the country, and highlighted support spaces for women with disabilities while building her own. In January, she and her husband, Jason Bloomfield, a financial adviser, became new parents, naming their daughter Jaelyn Jean Bloomfield.
