After injury left him in a wheelchair, a dancer’s friends come to his aid

Travis Ammann has danced and performed musical acts at the Huntington Beach Union High School District Auditorium since he was 10 years old.

The Huntington Beach High School graduate studied musical theater and dance at the Academy for the Performing Arts during his time at Huntington Beach. He last performed in the auditorium in 2009 for an alumni performance.

However, he never expected he would be back in the theater unable to perform.

Ammann, 26, is now in a wheelchair after suffering a debilitating injury last summer. Despite the injury, he made his way back to the auditorium to join friends from the performing arts community for a benefit show to raise money for his medical bills.

More than 100 people gathered at the auditorium Jan. 20 to watch a lineup of dancers and singers from local troupes in Orange County, with some members having graduated from APA. The night was filled with dancers performing the Charleston and several jazz routines. The evening was capped off by Ammann joining the dancers on stage and bowing to those who came to support him.

“I’m walking down memory lane,” he said.

Ammann suffers from a rare nontraumatic paraplegia called surfer’s myelopathy, in which the lower spinal cord is damaged from hyperextending the back. The injury is seen most in surfers, according to an article in the Journal of Spinal Cord Medicine.

On July 25, Ammann was getting surfing lessons when he felt a sharp pain in his back, but he did not think twice about it, thinking it was just a pulled muscle.

“But then the pain happened again, and I decided to get out of the water because it hurt a lot,” he said. “Fifteen minutes later, I collapsed and lost all feeling in my legs.”

He was living on his own during the time of the incident, but had to move back in with his parents in Huntington Beach. Recently, he and his family moved to Anaheim to bring Ammann closer to his doctors to receive his treatments, he said.

Ammann’s mother, Gwen Vigil, said it has been tough seeing her son unable to perform and bound to a wheelchair.

“He’s in an extreme amount of pain, which is really unfair,” she said. “You have no control over your lower extremities, but you’re in a significant amount of pain. He went from being a very healthy and active young man living his own life to have to be completely dependent again. It’s something that no one should have to deal with.”

The fundraiser was organized by Ammann’s longtime friend, Arroya Karian, who studied at APA and graduated from Huntington Beach the same year Ammann did.

Karian, 25, of Long Beach, said she had been trying to put together a benefit show at Huntington for Ammann for several months. She immediately booked the auditorium as soon as she found out which days it was available.

“We need to spread awareness of surfer’s myelopathy because it is such a rare condition,” she said. “It’s important for us as humans and as a society to know and appreciate the fact that there are so many little things in life that you have no control over, so you better appreciate and take full advantage of what you have here now. Who knows what could happen tomorrow?”

Ammann said he was humbled to see so many people come to the fundraiser that night. He added that he is appreciative of what Karian and others have done for him since his injury.

“[Karian] has shown me what a true best friend is,” he said.