New York City subway and street dansers

                                                          

           Summer time is a time for more recreation, for more entertainment troughout the city for a lot of people. It is the time to enjoy the weather. Sunny days along with temperature circulating around the seventies or low eighties are the perfect opportunities for many artists, perspective dancers or musicians to show their talents on the streets of New York City or on its subways.

         During the last five years I have worked around some of the most crowded areas in the city in the summer time. First I was working in South Street Sea Port in summer 2009 when for the first time I came across the street dancers.  It was exciting for me and for a lot of people too to be there on the week-ends watching these performers.  Every Friday or Saturday afternoon two African American guys used to be there in front of the mall and entertained the crowd. I remember that they had a radio and they loved to play Michael Jackson ‘songs.

              Once they started playing Michael ‘songs, they invited the crowd to clap their hands, and to form a circle around them (the dancers), so a lot of energy was generated around them before they started dancing.  They knew how to dance. Every time they did the acrobatic dance move, the crowd (children, parents, tourists) went crazy by clapping their hands again and again. People passing by would stop and take few minutes, and watch them performing admirably their dance.  Not surprisingly, the crowd who felt well entertained gave them money, one dollar bill, two dollars, and so and so. After each performance I saw some tourists rushing to take pictures with them.

         The second time I came across these streets performers was in 2010 when I was working by 42^nd street near Grand Central subway station.  Every day I used to take the train to go to my workplace which was on Madison Avenue and 42^nd street. Since then I have never forgotten this group of teenagers who I saw performing different kinds of dances that I had never seen before. Their acrobatic movements were so well articulated that some might think that their bodies had no bones at all.” The urban acrobats swing from handrails or backflips down aisles, with the ease and bravado of youngsters who grew up using the city as a giant dance floor’’ (McKenzie).

                                                                              Work cited

Sheena, McKenzie.’’ Meet New York’s urban acrobats”.CNN, February 17, 2014. Cnn.com web, Feb 21, 2014.