Monday, September 29, 2008

Urban Ballerina

I saw this performance artist dancing on Smith Street in Brooklyn a couple weekends ago. The plastic skirt she was wearing had little solar panels that generated enough electricity to play a weird static-like sound/music on the mini-speakers that were also attached to the skirt too.

But the funniest thing was hardly anyone on the street stopped to look at her except me and another passerby. It seems that New Yorkers are so desensitized to this sort of stunts that they don't even bother to look at them any more. I mean, we have the Naked Cowboy at Times Square.

So what is the oddest thing you ever saw on the street?

33 comments:

USelaine said...

I totally WANT that TUTU! What a great idea for solar energy collection!

But she looks like she's hitch-hiking, so I'd ignore her too.

Wayne said...

There is no odd stuff on the streets in Canada.

And if you believe that Ming maybe you'd like to make me an offer for the Brooklyn Bridge.

If there were a Naked Ballerina in Times Square I'd stop to look.

HZDP said...

This is a funny photo, naked cowboy in union square? haha... The oddest thing I've ever seen was a clown singing at the roadside of Hangzhou, you know Chinese are all very reserved, so we consider that as an odd thing,
you must have desensitized to this kind of scenes..

dianasfaria.com said...

I love this photo Ming! She looks so earnest.
One time I was waiting for a bus in front of the MET in the middle of winter. It was frigid single digit cold when a man walked out of Central Park with no shirt on. He was extremely muscular with a shaved head & a thick black handlebar mustache. He had a look in his eye that made you want to avoid eye contact. I sometimes think back and wonder if he would have been half as scary if it was a hot summer night.

Sally said...

I'd love to know how she gets en pointe in bare feet!

Strangest thing? I don't know - don't seem to have people doing stuff like this. There's a few unhinged people who do odd things but no naked cowboys or barefoot, solar-powered ballerinas that I can think of.

Anonymous said...

LOL! Wow! I would have probably taken a double-take at her.

Paz

USelaine said...

On the topic of hitch-hiking, about a year ago, I saw Dr. Patch Adams (the movie about him starred Robin Williams) step out of this cafe, then cross the street, and successfully hitch a ride south! It took one of the other cafe patrons to point out who he was to the rest of us. He was in Willits again recently for a fundraiser.

Saretta said...

We don't get much odd in Molfetta, people are very conservative and conformist. Dreadlocks are considered strange here!

There was a woman who used to walk around in her bathrobe and slippers yelling a particularly strong expletive and flipping the bird Italian-style at everyone...but I haven't seen her for a long time!

valeria said...

Poor sweet girl, I would have stopped, like you did, at least to focus on the tutu, that seems really fun! Here in Verona there are various people in costumes (romans gladiators, venetian masks, one man all painted white standing still, pinocchio, Charlot...) Hoping to get a coin and having pictures taken with the tourists!...

Anonymous said...

I would have stopped. I love this kind of stuff. It must have been thought-provoking. Wow!

Anonymous said...

It takes all kinds of people to make an ordinary village. I can't imagine what it takes for New York.

PeterParis said...

I can't really remember right now... but I would have stopped for this ballerina!

Olivier said...

superbe cette photo, voila une ballerine moderne et très originale. ça c'est NYC et voila aussi pourquoi je l'aime.

superb this picture, here is a ballerina modern and very original. that's NYC and is also why I love her.

Virginia said...

Believe it or not here in B'ham we had 3 girls doing some type of improv on the street at Art Walk. Nothing as sophisticated as what Nathalie has shown us from Avignon, FR, but they did garner a nice crowd. I will post that picture one day soon. Barefoot in NYC? Ewwwww.

Hilda said...

If she wants an audience, she's welcome to come to Manila. Everyone will stop to watch her — even those in cars!

Sharon said...

That tutu is very inventive! I remember when I was working in San Franciso passing a woman on the street who looked like she had a backpack on, but when she turned sideways I saw that the backpack had been converted into a bird cage and she was out taking her bird for a walk.

Shammickite said...

Eww, I would not like to dance on a NYC sidewalk in bare feet, just imagine the colour of her feet when she gets home!
But I love the solar panel tutu, if I saw her dancing on the streets of my small town, I would definitely stop and watch, in fact I would probably book her for a special guest spot in our annual small town variety show!!!

marley said...

I don't think I've seen anything like this before! Glad she was thinking about the environment and creating her own power!

Anonymous said...

hi!

I've found your blog in Nancy's blog and I was amazed when I saw this post!
My sister is a ballerina and I study visual arts... So this probably is one thing I wouldnt just pass by!

Here in Rio one can see lots of strange things in the street... I guess it's a bit like ny, we have a naked barman in lapa, why stop and watch a dancer wearing a solar skirt?!
I think that's just said... because lots of great ideas are lost and people get less and less sensitive about things...

well, I think I wrote too much! =I

hm, congratulations for your blog!

Ken Mac said...

this is great! too bad you couldn't record her music too...

Messy Karen said...

i was driving so not sure if this counts. couple of weeks ago on a busy residential street grown women in bikinis were selling lemonade. on my return trip the local police was presumably telling them to stop.

Jane Hards Photography said...

What naked cowboy! I get stared at for wearig a beret, so what the hell would happen if I took to wearing this to take photos. I think it's brilliant, now about that cowboy...

• Eliane • said...

Ah! My comment is gone - you didn't like it? :P

Unknown said...

wow, solar powered!
i wonder if those speakers are water proof too..

Chuck Pefley said...

So where was she when you and I were in Brooklyn???
Love it.

Marie Reed said...

She needs to put some shoes on!

Gerald (Ackworth born) said...

A solar-powered skirt - well that is definitely a new one on me.

One of the most bizarre sights I've seen were the street entertainers I saw in Reykjavick http://www.geraldengland.co.uk/cr/crp032.htm

Anonymous said...

My oddest encounter has got to be a group of chinese construction workers sitting on a tiny grass patch next to the traffic light.

It was really tiny and they looked like they were in a picnic mood.

tigerfish said...

Haha...that is a good way to charge up the cell phones!

Mame said...

Can we talk about the dancing in bare feet!?

Just Roaming The Cities said...

Funny! I think in the streets of Uptown or Downtown Minneapolis, nobdy would notice much, maybe stop a minute and look. But in other areas somebody would probably call the cops!!
Good for her for getting out there and just doing it. I can't even muster up the courage to do karokee!

Just Roaming The Cities said...

Oh--and the oddest thing seen on the streets? A man with a sign that said, "Please help me with money, I need to buy beer."

NormanTheDoxie said...

I love the Halloween parade.... and it's coming up soon.

Why not do a photo blogger meet up that night?