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Chelsie Hill ever imagined a career as a professional dancer — she just didn't know she would exist in a wheelchair once she got there.

At 17 years erstwhile, Hill was part of her high schoolhouse trip the light fantastic team and had been dancing competitively for more than a decade. She was three months away from graduation in Pacific Grove, California when she got into a car blow with a group of friends, leaving Hill paralyzed from the omphalus down.

In an instant, everything changed. All of a sudden Hill, now 25, couldn't move — let alone dance — similar she used to.

"In the beginning, I thought, well, when someone breaks a bone, they heal," she told TODAY of the weeks after her accident. "Information technology takes a picayune chip, but they become back to their life. I didn't really understand the extent of what had happened (to me). I knew at that place was a car accident, and the doctor said, 'You're not going to exist able to walk again,' but I didn't know what that meant. I didn't know what the time to come looked like."

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Hill spent 51 days in the hospital, simply it took much longer for reality to sink in: The medico was right. Just while Loma was starting to realize she wouldn't ever walk again, she refused to surrender dance.

Chelsie Hill who started a wheelchair dance team in LA, called The Rollettes. — Chelsie Hill danced competitively every bit a girl. Courtesy of Chelsie Hill

"When it first happened, I was similar, 'OK, how am I going to get dressed? How am I going to exercise this?'" she said. "Just I ever knew I would trip the light fantastic again."

2 years afterwards she was released from the infirmary, she organized a dance showcase with some women she had met in the wheelchair community, and from there, the idea for a wheelchair dance squad was born.

She launched the Rollettes (formerly known equally Walk and Roll, and earlier that, Team Hot Wheels) in 2012. The grouping of six women performs across the country at various abilities festivals and expos, and volition dance at the upcoming Wings for Life World Run in Santa Clarita, California, which raises funds for spinal string research.

Colina, who besides appeared on SundanceTV's reality show "Button Girls," considers the crew "family" and oft leads do each week, teaching new choreography or training for an upcoming performance.

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"I have built my whole life these last 7 years basically normalizing my state of affairs," Hill said. "Of course I'm still in touch with friends from before the blow, but my favorite function about this team is knowing that I have a group of girls who are my best friends, my sisters. Being able to travel with them and not feeling different."

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On social media, the Rollettes prove off moves to hits from Selena Gomez and Ed Sheeran — they even experiment with caricatural and ballroom dance. The women jerk, sway or rock their upper bodies, and use their easily to swerve their wheelchairs or, in one case, "shuffle" to the beat of LMFAO's "Party Rock."

Dancing is "second nature" to Loma, but learning how to motility in a chair was entering a whole new globe.

"Half of my body was taken away from me and I have to move information technology with my hands at present," Hill said. "It definitely took a lot of learning and patience."

Five years later, Hill has accepted her new normal. In fact, she embraces it.

"Of course there are things I miss beingness able to feel — leaps and kicks and backflips," Hill said. "Just when I'm performing, I still feel the same rush that I used to. And when I get on phase, I don't feel my chair. I don't experience different. I'k only dancing, and that'south where my eye is."