Ballet dancer rescues man pushed onto subway tracks
NEW YORK -- A professional ballet dancer in New York City is being hailed as a hero after he jumped into action to rescue a man who was pushed onto the subway tracks over the weekend, CBS New York reports.
As a dancer with the American Ballet Theater, 31-year-old Grey Davis is paid to perform amazing leaps and lifts. This week, he's being lauded for a lift of a different kind.
It happened Saturday night when Davis, his mother, and his wife -- who is also a ballet dancer -- were at the 72nd Street train station heading home. While waiting for their train, they saw a man and a woman arguing loudly across the platform.
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"It wasn't scary at first but my wife said this looks like it's going to escalate pretty quickly," Davis told CBS New York. "She started hitting him and once the hitting and punching started that's when I knew something was going to happen."
When the alteration between the man and woman became violent, Davis says he ran upstairs to get help but he couldn't find anyone. He raced over to where the two were but when get got there, the woman was gone and the man was unconscious on the tracks.
"I saw nobody else was going down there," Davis said. "People were screaming for somebody to go get help and there was a good bit of people there and I saw him laying there and he wasn't getting up and I heard a train coming but I didn't know which direction it was coming from."
Davis picked the man up with no thoughts of his own well-being. Davis recently suffered a herniated disc and hadn't danced in a month, but his first pas de deux partner wasn't a lithe ballerina, it was a man he estimates weighs about 250 pounds.
"I rolled him over my shoulder and I didn't realize how high the platform was until I went to put him up there," Davis said. "Two other people helped me get him the rest of the way up there and then somebody grabbed me and pulled me the rest of the way too."
Other witnesses detained a 23-year-old woman who ran from the scene. Police took her into custody within minutes.
People at the train station where it all happened are calling Davis a hero.
"That's selflessness, that's complete heroism, and I would like to believe that everyone would step up in a situation like that and help out a stranger," Manhattan resident Kasia Reterska said.
"He's strong, I'm pretty sure it's all about the ballet dancing," Bronx resident Jean Perez said. "There's a lot of lifting going on and I think he's a hero."
Davis said he was a bit sore Monday, but his ballet training helped him because he was taught to lift with his legs. He was applauded by strap-hangers right after the incident, and at rehearsal Monday morning he was applauded by his fellow dancers.
He'll be sure to hear more applause Monday night when he returns to the stage to perform the ballet "Le Corsaire" at Lincoln Center.
"We're all human beings and anytime you have the chance to help somebody, please take that," Davis said.
The stranger Davis saved is expected to make a full recovery. The woman accused of pushing him onto the tracks is facing assault charges.