Nicholas Brothers

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The Nicholas Brothers were a famous American tap dance pair of brothers. Fayard (1914–2006) and Harold Nicholas (1921–2000) performed on stage, films, and television. In the 1930s and 40s, when numerous African-American entertainers scenes were cut to accommodate the prevailing racism of the day, the Hollywood studios would demand that no changes be made to any material of the Nicholas Brothers.^{[citation needed]}

Fayard Antonio Nicholas (October 20, 1914 – January 24, 2006), born in Mobile, Alabama,^[1], who died from pneumonia, complications of a stroke, was an American dancer, and the elder brother of the tap dancing pair. Fayard married three times - his last wife, Katherine Hopkins (2000 - 24 January 2006) (until his death), Barbara January (1967 - 1998) (until her death) with 1 child, and Geraldine Pate (? - 1942) and his^[2](divorced) with 2 children, Tony and Paul Nicholas.^[3] Fayard was a member of the Bahá'í Faith since 1967.^[4] Two of Fayard's granddaughters call themselves the Nicholas Sisters and continue their dances and award winning achievements.^[5][6]

Harold Nicholas, (March 27, 1921 – July 3, 2000), born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina,^[1] the younger half of the world famous pair, each known as one of the world's greatest dancers. He was first married to actress Dorothy Dandridge from 1942 to 1951, the couple had one child, Harolyn Nicholas, who was born severely mentally handicapped. Ultimately Harold married three times.^[3]

Contents 1 Style and moves 2 Filmography 3 Awards 4 Background 5 Further reading 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Style and moves

One of their signature moves was to dance down a huge flight of broad stairs, leapfrogging over each other and landing in a complete split on each step - for example this move formed part of the finale of their most famous performance in the movie Stormy Weather.^[2] Fred Astaire once told the brothers that the acrobatic elegance and synchronicity of the "Jumpin' Jive" dance number in Stormy Weather made it the greatest movie musical number he had ever seen. In that number, the Nicholas Brothers dance on drums and leap across music stands in an orchestra with the fearless exuberance of children stone-hopping across a pond. In the finale, they leap-frog seamlessly down a sweeping staircase.^[3] Another of the signature moves was a "no-hands" splits--in which they not only went down but sprang back up again without using their hands for balance--left audiences wide-eyed.^[3] Gregory Hines declared that if ever a movie was made of The Nicholas' Brothers life that their dance numbers would have to be computer generated because no one could duplicate them.^[2]

[edit] Filmography

• Hard Four (2005)
• Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (2003)
• Night at the Golden Eagle (2002) (Fayard Nicholas)
• I Used to Be in Pictures (2000)
• Funny Bones (1995) (Harold Nicholas)
• The Nicholas Brothers: We Sing and We Dance (1992)
• "Alright" (Janet Jackson song) and video (1992)
• The Five Heartbeats (1990) (Harold Nicholas)
• That's Black Entertainment (1990) (archive footage)
• Tap (1989) (Harold Nicholas)
• That's Dancing! (1985) (archive footage)
• Disco 9000 (1976) (Harold Nicholas)
• Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? (1975) (archive footage)
• That's Entertainment! (1974) (archive footage)
• Uptown Saturday Night (1974) (Harold Nicholas)
• The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970) (Fayard Nicholas)
• L'Empire de la nuit (1963) (Harold Nicholas)
• Bonjour Kathrin (1956)
• Musik im Blut (1955)
• El Mensaje de la muerte (1953)
• El Misterio del carro express (1953)
• Botta e Riposta (1951)
• Pathe News Reel (1948)
• The Pirate (1948)
• "Dixieland Jamboree" (1946) (short subject)
• Carolina Blues (1944) (Harold Nicholas)
• The Reckless Age (1944) (Harold Nicholas)
• Take It or Leave It (1944)
• Stormy Weather (1943)
• Orchestra Wives (1942)
• Sun Valley Serenade (1941)
• The Great American Broadcast (1941)
• Tin Pan Alley (1940)
• Down Argentine Way (1940)
• My Son Is Guilty (1939)
• Calling All Stars (1937)
• Babes in Arms (1937)
• My American Wife (1936)
• "The Black Network" (1936) (short subject)
• Coronado (1936)
• The Big Broadcast of 1936 (1935)
• "An All-Colored Vaudeville Show" (1935) (short subject)
• Kid Millions (1934)
• "Syncopancy" (1933) (short subject) (Harold Nicholas)
• The Emperor Jones" (1933) (Harold Nicholas)
• "Pie, Pie Blackbird" (1932) (short subject)

[edit] Awards

• In 1938, at the Cotton Club there a face-off dance competition between the Nicholas Brothers and the Berry Brothers, an African-American acrobatic dance trio. It has become a legendary confrontation, a sort of dance-fight for supremacy. By some accounts the Berry Brothers were more athletic but the Nicholas brothers were better overall performers - better at pleasing the crowd.^[7][8]

Many of these awards are listed at TapDance.org's biography of the Nicholas Brothers and are supplemented in detail from other references.

• Harold has received the Dea Award from the Dance Educators of America
• Harold received the Bay Area Critics Circle Award (Best Principal Performance, Stompin' at the Savoy )
• Harold received the Harbor Performing Arts Center Lifetime Achievement Award
• honorary doctorate from Harvard University for both brothers^[7]
• Black Film makers Hall of Fame (1978)
• the Brothers were honored with a retrospective of their work in films on the Academy Awards television special (1981)
• Ellie Award (1984), National Film Society for both brothers
• Apollo Theater's Hall of Fame (1986), First Class Inductees for both brothers
• Ebony Lifetime Achievement Award (1987) for both brothers
• Fayard received Broadway's 1989 Tony Award as Best Choreographer for "Black and Blue" along with his collaborators Cholly Atkins, Henry LeTang and Frankie Manning.^[5]
• Scripps American Dance Festival Award^[9]
• Kennedy Center Honors in 1991 for both brothers who were in attendance^[1]
• The National Black Media Coalition Lifetime Achievement Award (1992)
• Flo-Bert Award (1992)
• New York's Tap Dance Committee, Gypsy Award (1994)
• For their contribution to the motion picture industry, the Nicholas Brothers have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7083 Hollywood Blvd (1994)
• Professional Dancer's Society, Dance Magazine Award of (1995)
• Carnegie Hall sold out for a tribute to the brothers in 1998^[10]
• National Museum of Dance Inductees (2001)^[11]

[edit] Background

The Nicholas Brothers grew up in Philadelphia, the sons of musicians who played in their own band at the old Standard Theater, their mother at the piano and father on drums. At the age of three, Fayard was always seated in the front row while his parents worked, and by the time he was ten, he had seen most of the great African American Vaudeville acts, particularly the dancers, including such notables of the time as Alice Whitman, Willie Bryant and Bill Robinson.^[7]

As child performers at Harlem's Cotton Club they were the only entertainers in the all African American cast allowed to mingle with patrons.^[5] By 1932, they were the "Nicholas Brothers" and were performing at the legendary Cotton Club elegantly dressed in top hats and tails. Harold was 11, Fayard was 18.

In that exhilarating hybrid of tap dance, ballet and acrobatics, sometimes called acrobatic dancing or "flash dancing" no individual or group surpassed the effect that the Nicholas Brothers had on audiences and on other dancers^[1] and competed with the Berry Brothers in 1938 at the Cotton Club.

Two years later they were in Hollywood and for several decades alternated between movies, nightclubs, concerts, Broadway, television, and extensive tours of Latin America, Africa, and Europe.^[1]

The Nicholas brothers taught master classes in tap dance as teachers-in-residence at Harvard University and Radcliff as Ruth Page Visiting Artists. Among their known students are Debbie Allen, Janet Jackson, and Michael Jackson.^[7] Several of today's master tap dancers have performed with or been taught by the brothers - Dianne Walker, Sam Weber, Lane Alexander, Mark Mendonca, Terry Brock,^[12] Colburn Kids Tap/L.A, Channing Cook Holmes,^[13] Chris Baker, Artis Brienzo, Chester Whitmore, Tobius Tak,^[14] Carol Zee and Steve Zee.^[15]

The Swift Brothers have restaged some of the choreography of the Nicholas Brothers from Down Argentine Way.^[16]

[edit] Further reading

• Brotherhood in Rhythm: The Jazz Dancing of the Nicholas Brothers by Constance Valis Hill, ISBN 0-19-513166-5

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e} Kennedy Center biography of Faynard Nicholas
2. ^ ^{a b c} Find-a-Grave bio of Fayard Nicholas
3. ^ ^{a b c d} Fayard Nicholas of renowned Nicholas Brothers dancing duo dies, Jet, February 13, 2006
4. ^ Selected profiles of African-American Bahá'ís
5. ^ ^{a b c} IMBD biography for Fayard Nicholas
6. ^ Century Ballroom Presents, 2nd Annual The Masters of Lindy Hop and Tap
7. ^ ^{a b c d} The Nicholas Brothers' official website
8. ^ That's the Joint!: the hip-hop studies reader By Mark Anthony Neal, Murray Forman p.34-5
9. ^ PBS Documentary "Free to Dance" timeline(2001), Great Performances
10. ^ IMBD Biography for Harold Nicholas
11. ^ National Museum of Dance Hall of Fame Inductees
12. ^ Classes and Performances with Tap Masters
13. ^ Los Angeles Choreographers and Dancers - Colburn Kids Tap/L.A
14. ^ National Tap Ensemble cast
15. ^ Everybody Dance! meet our teachers,
16. ^ Tap Dancer Biographies: M-Z

[edit] External links

• Nicholas Brothers Pictures from Stormy Weather, 1943
• Five-minute sequence from Stormy Weather from Google Video. Fred Astaire said this sequence, by the Nicholas brothers, was the finest piece of tap dancing ever filmed.
• Fayard Nicholas at the Internet Movie Database
• Harold Nicholas at the Internet Movie Database
• The Nicholas Brothers' official website
• The official Faynard Nicholas website
• Jitterbuzz Lindy Week Review interview with Fayard Nicholas
• pictures from Jumpin' Jive Cab Calloway with Fayard and Harold Nicholas, from Stormy Weather, 1943
• Fayard and Harold Nicholas
• Kennedy Center biography of Faynard Nicholas
• Selected profiles of African-American Bahá'ís
• Performing Arts Gliding Off the Dance Floor: Fayard Nicholas by Terry Gross
• Remembrances Dancer-Choreographer Fayard Nicholas
• Remembrances Inspiration to Astaire, Dancer Fayard Nicholas by Joel Rose
• Harold Nicholas obituary