perfectnonfreedom:

Kenneth MacMillan.

No, this isn’t a recent shot of a dancer in costume for a performance with a black and white filter over it. This shot was taken in the year 1951, which makes it 62 years old. By sheer coincidence, this is how old MacMillan was when he passed away in 1992 – 62 years old. He died backstage at a show, a true dancer to the end.
Something’s really captivating about this shot – if you saw Kenneth in a pair of Buster Browns walking down the street to get a soda on a nice spring day, he’d just be another neighborhood lad in his early 20s, full of ambition about the future, maybe flirting with the girls. Put him in different shoes however, and he becomes a timeless embodiment of art. His feet come to life, and his body follows. Once a dancer, always a dancer.

Also – I originally thought this picture had a Puerto Rican Billy Elliot vibe to it, but as you can tell by his last name, MacMillan was Scottish. His career was mostly in England and Europe. A true star of ballet, gone but not forgotten. I wonder what he would have thought of Tumblr.

Source, with more photographers from the archive, is here.