NEW YORK (WCBS/CNN) - A professional dancer in New York City is being hailed as a hero after he jumped into action to rescue a man who was allegedly pushed onto subway tracks over the weekend.
As a dancer with the American Ballet Theatre, Grey Davis is paid to perform amazing leaps and lifts. But 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. They saw a man and a woman arguing loudly across the platform.
“It wasn't scary at first but my wife said this looks like it's going to escalate pretty quickly," Davis said.
When the altercation 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 he got there the woman was gone and the man was unconscious on the tracks.
“I saw nobody else was going down there. 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 said.
Davis picked the man up with no thoughts of his own well-being. The 31-year-old dancer recently suffered a herniated disc and hadn't danced in a month. But his first pas de deux partner wasn't a little 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. 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. Luckily I had a little training from ballet because we learn to lift with our legs but I am a little sore today,” Davis said on Monday.
Other good Samaritans detained a 23-year-old woman who ran from the scene. Police arrested her within minutes.
People at the train station where it all happened call Davis a hero. "I think 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,” Kasia Reterska said.
"He's strong, I'm pretty sure it's all about the ballet dancing there's a lot of lifting going on and I think he's a hero,” said Jean Perez, a Bronx resident.
"We're all human beings, and anytime you have the chance to help somebody please take that," Davis said. Davis was applauded by right after the incident. And at rehearsal on Monday morning he was applauded by his fellow dancers.
He'll hear more applause Monday night when he returns to the stage to perform the ballet 'Le Corsaire' at Lincoln Center.
The stranger Davis saved is expected to make a full recovery. As for the woman accused of pushing the man onto the tracks, she is facing assault charges.
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