Ballet Dancer Becomes NYC Subway Hero

He jumped down to save man pushed on tracks
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 5, 2017 3:09 AM CDT
Ballet Dancer Saves Man From Subway Track
Davis says getting back on the platform was trickier than he expected.   (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Not all heroes wear tights—but New York City man Gray Davis does, in his job as a dancer with the American Ballet Theater. Davis, 31, sprang into action after a homeless man was pushed onto subway tracks on Saturday night, jumping onto the tracks and lifting the unconscious 58-year-old man to safety before swinging himself back up, the AP reports. Police say a 23-year-old woman who fled the scene on foot was arrested in connection with the assault at the 72nd Street Broadway-Seventh Avenue station.

Davis, who was not dancing that night due to a herniated disk injury, was on his way home with wife and fellow dancer Cassandra Trenary after her performance in The Golden Cockerel. When the man was pushed onto the tracks after an argument, "at first I waited for somebody else to jump down there," Davis tells the New York Times. "People were screaming to get help. But nobody jumped down. So I jumped down." Davis, who is scheduled to return to the stage Monday night as a pirate in Le Corsaire, says the platform was a lot higher than he expected. "Luckily, I'm a ballet dancer, so I swung my leg up," he says. (More American Ballet Theatre stories.)

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