This is one of my faves of all the photos I’ve taken. This is a dance studio a couple blocks south of Port Authority on 8th Avenue. A place that gets (or used to get) crazy foot traffic. Total human traffic jams on the sidewalks, not just during rush hour, but always. I worked in this area when I worked at the New York Times, and I would bring my lunch every day because it was too much trouble to go outside and brave the crowds. It’s not exactly a place where you can linger, and look around, and find interesting things to photograph. I would try, though!
One day, I happened to glance up. Around me was a seething swarm of humanity, pouring into subway stations, flooding into the Port Authority, pouring OUT of subways … and I glanced up and saw the most peaceful beautiful thing I could possibly see. A ballet class going on a couple floors up, dancers at the barre, doing their thing far above the fray.
This is New York. This WAS New York. This will be New York again.
//This is New York. This WAS New York. This will be New York again.//
My sentiments exactly. I moved away from my beloved city a while ago but I will always be a born and raised New Yorker. The part that other people who live west of the Hudson don’t get when they write their doomsday articles about our fair city is that the NY of the future will not be the NY of the past, but it will always, always be NY. Unique in every sense of the word. I await with trepidation of what this future NY will be, but it will always be NY.
// that the NY of the future will not be the NY of the past, but it will always, always be NY. //
Yes. The city has been through so much – so many different transformations and trials and troubles – it will be okay. Different but okay.
I too am no longer in the New York area. I haven’t been in the city itself in a year – which hurts my heart!! I heard that two of my favorite little movie theatres are opening back up in April – it still feels too soon for me – but … I just don’t know. Strange times we are living in.