“ I would have to say Dancing on Tour with Eazy E and NWA before my accident and then dancing on the Vibe Music Awards with Ludacris while dancing in my wheelchair."
Auti Angel
Q. Thanks for interviewing with us. Tell everyone who you are and what you do? A. Hello My Name is Auti Angel and I am a professional dancer who happens to be paralyzed from the waist down. Basically, you can say that I was Jlo before Jlo until a hit and run car accident in 1992 left me paralyzed instantly. I couldn’t shake this spirit of a dancer, so I adapted my wheelchair into a prop and pioneered wheelchair hiphop. Q. What made you want to be a professional dancer? A. I remember watching Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson music videos and live performances that would fuel the dancer living within. It was as if it was calling to me. I remember the feeling of freedom I would get anytime I danced anywhere and knew this is what I was called to do. Q. I know you had a life threating accident that left you paralyzed but what motivated you to keep going? A. It was the life after death experience that gave me the comfort of knowing everything was going to be ok regardless of the devastation my body endured. the accident may have paralyzed me physically, but it couldn’t destroy the spirit of dance that lived within. 24
WIB Magazine
Q. Tell us about your experience being on “Push Girls” and “Musical Chairs”? A. Push Girls is a reality show based on the lives of 4 of my best friends and myself. Showing another perspective on life and people living
with a disability. Musical Chairs is a Film, aired on HBO, where I costarred in that was about a dancer who became paralyzed yet finds her way back to wheelchair ballroom dancing. I remember reading the script and thinking wow this is so close to my own life.
