I have mentioned many times before the simple pleasure of a stroll in New York City.
There’s the people watching, the fresh air, the chance of meeting a handsome stranger. There’s also the chance you’ll see something quite out of the ordinary. Something you’d never see anywhere else.
I was walking through Columbus Circle the other day when I happened upon this unbelievable sight:
A couple doing very intricate ballet on the street.
They sashayed all over the circle, sometimes on pointe, doing twirls, even lifts:
Even the most jaded New Yorker had to turn his head (it didn’t hurt that the ballerina was gorgeous).
I was convinced it was some kind of street performance. It’s the recession! Ballet dancers are forced to take to the street!. However, when they finished, they just ran off. Swiftly departed without even a bow and certainly no putting out a hat. That, and a snippet of conversation I overheard from them, makes me believe they were simple rehearsing for a performance. Instead of renting a huge rehearsal space, they chose to take it to the streets. And why not? They would never have made any one’s day in the confines of a rehearsal space, but out under the sunshine they did just that.
Random Street Ballet Couple, thank you for making my day. I doubt I was alone in that. New York City streets, thank you for always being fabulous.
I agree. Here is something I wrote in an unpublished fiction novel, but was a real experience of mine: “All is odd in New York, thus no one entity stands out for very long. The rounding of a corner can bring to light a micro dot of total misplacement, a relic of the past wedged between ultra-modern shops and restaurants of ‘progress.’ Or it can raise the curtain on a montage of human existence: two Orthodox Jews – with their large black brimmed hats and black coats in contrast to the noonday heat – walking past the tourist bedecked steps of St. Patrick’s Cathedral turn their heads to look at two blond haired Scandinavian girls – dressed as rodents for an advertising promotion – yelling at a Pakistani taxi driver who, claiming to not understand their version of English, is explaining – high pitched, at a feverish pace – to a policeman why he ran over their Mouse Cart, while four Chinese tourists – wearing I love New York t-shirts and carrying bags from an European deli – are taking pictures of the hundreds of Wisconsin cheese pamphlets now littering the sidewalk. Nothing is odd when everything is unique; this is New York.”
Well said and a beautifully painted picture. Thank you for sharing that.
I love it when you see these kind of thins & it makes your day!
It’s the best, especially when the rest of your day has been shit. That wasn’t the case here, but just saying. 🙂
that is AMAZING!
See? That just doesn’t happen on the streets in Alabama. One day I will move to New York and live there for a couple of years. Just for the experience. That’s awesome.
P.S.
Hi, new friend. I have actually been to your blog before but I’m guilty of being a lurker sometimes. :-X
Show me someone whose never been guilty of lurking and I’ll show you someone who never looks at blogs! No worries, just thanks for reading!
P.S. I really love your blog 🙂
I would have cried if I had seen this! Thanks for sharing, NYC!
I just bought the New York City Ballet workout and attempted it tonight. It kicked my ass and it was exactly what I wanted it to do 🙂
They are the hugely talented stars of The Ride. Check out their performances at http://www.experiencetheride.com and on YouTube – search NY Ballerina.
actually, they were performing for the patrons on The Ride… an amazing new bus tour that includes live performers at key locations…. these talented dancers do this over & over all day. It’s especially beautiful at night, when the ballerina’s costume is lit with LED lights.
I love New York! 🙂