Benjamin Carroll

Ballet Dancer Leaps Into Action, Saves Man From Subway Tracks

Gray Davis was not dancing that night due to a herniated disk injury

A New York City ballet dancer can also add heroics to his repertoire, having saved a homeless man who was pushed onto subway tracks over the weekend.

Thirty-one-year-old Gray Davis, a dancer with the American Ballet Theater, said no one was acting to help the unidentified man who had fallen onto the subway tracks Saturday night.

"I just saw him laying there and he wasn't getting up," Davis later recounted to News 4. "I heard a train coming, but I wasn't sure which direction." 

"I saw nobody else going down there and I knew he wasn't gonna get back up," he said.

Davis said adrenaline took over and he jumped onto the tracks and lifted the unconscious man onto the platform.

"I just rolled him over my shoulder, and I didn't realize how high the platform was until I went to put him up there and I wasn't tall enough -- I wasn't tall enough, and I'm a pretty tall guy," he said. 

With the strength and training of a dancer, Davis threw his leg over the platform, and bystanders helped them both up. 

NYPD officials said the man in the tracks was homeless and they arrested a 23-year-old woman accused of pushing him. 

The victim is recovering at the hospital. Davis says he would do it again. 

"When I saw him laying there, there was no 'what's his background, what's his history, where's he from' -- none of that," he said. "It's a human being. We're all human beings. And anytime you have the chance to help somebody, please take that." 

Davis was not dancing that night due to a herniated disk injury. He had earlier watched his wife Cassandra Trenary dance in performances of "The Golden Cockerel" and was headed home with her and his mother.

He's now set to perform Monday night for the first time since getting injured a month ago -- this time, with the surreal status of hero as he hits the stage. 

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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