Community rallies around legendary Broadway dancer, 95, who faces losing NYC home

The local community is rallying around a Broadway icon and 95-year-old trailblazer who is at risk of losing the Hell’s Kitchen home he’s called his “sanctuary” for more than half a century.Thousands of neighbors, former dance students and even strangers are rallying around Nat Horne — an original member of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater — who fears he won’t survive leaving his long-time Manhattan abode for a nursing home.“I’ll probably die if they take me out,” Horne, who is celebrating his 96th birthday in December, told The Post.

“It’s my home.”Horne has depleted most of his funds to pay for in-home care and has nothing left to continue paying for the care and his rent.He has slowly been losing his memory since he was diagnosed with dementia in the spring of 2023, but needs to look no further than the walls of his living room to be reminded of the vibrant life he led.His third-floor walk-up unit on 47th Street is covered in movie posters, souvenirs and awards, but mostly photographs of the stars he worked with and coached, including Laura BaCall, Lena Horne and Martin Sheen.Despite the dementia, being legally blind and having recently undergone a hip replacement, Horne is vibrant and lucid, according to his former student and longtime friend Stanley Harrison, who visits the legendary dancer almost daily.Horne even performs as a frequent guest on the Erin Lee and Friends channel — a YouTube show run by his neighbor and former student — and typically sings songs from the 12 Broadway shows he was crucial in bringing to life.But even so, a fall in the middle of the night last spring made it clear Horne needs round-the-clock care, an exorbitant cost that has completely depleted the retirement savings he carefully built after decades of dancing and teaching.By August, Harrison realized that Horne only had enough money to make it through December.Luckily for Horne, his friends, neighbors, former students and even strangers are pou...