Some ballet dancers train their entire lives for a single shot at greatness. Others get their shot, make it, and then use their days off to rescue people from the subway tracks. Gray Davis, a member of the corps de ballet at the American Ballet Theatre, came to the rescue Saturday night after a man was pushed onto the tracks at the 72nd Street 1,2,3 station during an argument. The unnamed victim was knocked unconscious in the fall. “At first I waited for somebody else to jump down there,” Gray told the New York Times. “People were screaming to get help. But nobody jumped down. So I jumped down.”
Gray, who had just watched his wife, Cassandra Trenary, perform in The Golden Cockerel at the Met, was not dancing this weekend while recuperating from a herniated disk, but nonetheless jumped down onto the tracks and hoisted the man to safety. “I never realized how high it was,” Gray said of the platform. “Luckily, I’m a ballet dancer, so I swung my leg up.” The police later arrested the woman seen arguing with the victim, Carolyn Mack, who denied pushing him. “It was really scary,” Gray said of the experience. “I don’t know if I had time to process it until I saw my wife coming down crying — then I realized it was scary.” As if you didn’t have enough reason to support the arts already.
