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Ballet Hispanico Floods During Water Main Break on Upper West Side

By Kathleen Culliton | September 1, 2016 5:47pm
 Ballet Hispanico artistic director Eduardo Vilaro holds up a flamenco skirt that was drenched when the studio basement flooded on Monday.
Ballet Hispanico artistic director Eduardo Vilaro holds up a flamenco skirt that was drenched when the studio basement flooded on Monday.
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DNAinfo/Kathleen Culliton

UPPER WEST SIDE — A historic ballet company’s costumes and floors were ravaged when a major water main burst on Amsterdam Avenue Monday and flooded the studio.

Stephen Gaynor School on West 89th Street and Aquarius True Value Hardware on Amsterdam Avenue also experienced minor flooding, but neither of them suffered losses like the Ballet Hispanico, workers said. 

Water began pouring into the ballet studio at 167 W. 89th St. around 9:30 p.m. Monday and quickly filled the basement with six feet of water, drenching the company’s stock of house-made costumes and props as well as the dance floors on the first floor.

“I’m heartbroken,” said wardrobe supervisor Diana Ruettiger, 65, who cried as she looked down at an armful of potentially ruined flamenco skirts, some vintage, some made by hand in the studio.

“It’s all those wonderful things for the company, for the kids,” said Ruettiger. “Gone.”

Artistic director Eduardo Vilaro, 50, estimated that if the 4,000 costumes that were stored in the basement could not be saved, it would cost tens of thousands of dollars to replace them.

And if Ballet Hispanico needs to replace the flamenco and tap dance floors, where the company’s founder Tina Ramirez danced when the company began in 1970, the total cost of renovations could be near $500,000, Vilaro said.

The company is asking for donations to help replace the destroyed costumes and floors, which it spent almost $1 million to renovate in 2015, he said.

Vilaro blamed himself for the lost costumes.  When Hurricane Sandy struck it destroyed the costumes the school stored in New Jersey, so he decided the safest place for them was the Upper West Side studio.

“Water follows me,” said Vilaro. “It’s devastating.”

Vilaro still hopes to open the Ballet Hispanico doors to the 600 students it expects to train in flamenco, salsa and ballet when the next semester begins in two weeks.

And he promised the company would be ready for its upcoming performance at the Apollo Theater on Nov. 18, but the company will not be performing "The Tempest" or "Swan Lake" any time soon.

“No water ballets,” he said.

Volunteers from the company arrived on Wednesday to sort through the drenched dance costumes to sort out which could be salvaged and which were destroyed.

Company dancer Christopher Bloom, 26, donned a white face mask to protect his lungs as he lugged bag after bag of wet flamenco skirts up from the basement.

“This is my home, it’s where I come to create,” said Bloom, who added that he came to the studio that day with one thought on his mind.

“Fix it,” he said.