Nicholas Brothers

Fayard Antonio Nicholas was born October 20, 1914, in Mobile, Alabama,[1] and Harold Lloyd Nicholas was born March 17, 1921, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina,[1] to Viola Harden (maiden; 1893–1971), a pianist, and Ulysses Dominick Nicholas (1892–1935), a drummer.

The Nicholas Brothers grew up in Philadelphia, the sons of college-educated musicians who played in their own band at the Standard Theater. At the age of three, Fayard would always sit 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.[2] The brothers were fascinated by the combination of tap dancing and acrobatics. Fayard often imitated their acrobatics and clowning for the kids in his neighborhood.[2]

Neither Fayard nor Harold had any formal dance training.[3] Fayard taught himself how to dance, sing, and perform by watching and imitating the professional entertainers on stage. He then taught his younger siblings, first performing with his sister Dorothy as the Nicholas Kids, later joined by Harold. Harold idolized his older brother and learned by copying his moves and distinct style. Dorothy later opted out of the act, and the Nicholas Kids became known as the Nicholas Brothers.[4]

As word spread of their talents, the Nicholas Brothers became known around Philadelphia. They were first hired for a radio program, The Horn and Hardart Kiddie Hour, and then by other local theatres such as the Standard and the Pearl. When they were performing at the Pearl, the manager of The Lafayette, a New York vaudeville showcase, saw them and immediately wanted them to perform for his theater.[2]

The brothers moved to Philadelphia in 1926 and gave their first performance at the Standard a few years later.[5] In 1932, they became the featured act at Harlem's Cotton Club when Harold was 11 and Fayard was 18. They astonished their mainly white audiences dancing to the jazz tempos of "Bugle Call Rag"; they were the only entertainers in the African-American cast allowed to mingle with white patrons.[3] They performed at the Cotton Club for two years, working with the orchestras of Lucky Millinder, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, and Jimmy Lunceford. During this time, they made their uncredited movie debut, in the 1932 short Pie, Pie Blackbird, featuring Eubie Blake and his orchestra.[2][6] The brothers attributed their success to their unique style of dancing - a hybrid of tap dance, ballet, and acrobatics sometimes called "acrobatic dancing" or "flash dancing" [1] - which was greatly in demand during this time.[7]

Producer Samuel Goldwyn saw them at the Cotton Club and invited them to California to be a part of Kid Millions (1934), their first performances in a Hollywood movie. The brothers made their Broadway debut in the Ziegfeld Follies of 1936 and also appeared in Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's musical Babes in Arms in 1937. They impressed their choreographer, George Balanchine, who invited them to appear in Babes in Arms. With Balanchine's training, they learned many new stunts. Their talent led many to presume they were trained ballet dancers.[8]

Ben Bernie with the Nicholas Brothers, photographed during a Radio City broadcast (Radio Mirror magazine, April 1936)

By 1940, they had moved to Hollywood and for several decades divided their time between movies, nightclubs, concerts, Broadway, television, and extensive tours of Latin America, Africa, and Europe.[1] They toured England with a production of Blackbirds.[2] They gave a Royal Command Performance at the London Paladium for King George VI in 1948.[6]

In 1991, the Nicholas Brothers received Kennedy Center Honors in recognition of their six decades of achievements. A year later, a documentary film, We Sing & We Dance, celebrated their careers and included tributes from Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gregory Hines, M.C. Hammer, and Clarke Peters. In 1994, members of the cast of Hot Shoe Shuffle also paid them tribute.[9]

The Nicholas Brothers taught master classes in tap dance as teachers-in-residence at Harvard University and Radcliffe at Ruth Page Visiting Artists. Among their known students are Debbie Allen, Janet Jackson, and Michael Jackson.[2] 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,[10] Colburn Kids Tap/L.A, Channing Cook Holmes,[11] Chris Baker, Artis Brienzo, Chester Whitmore, Darlene Gist, Chris Scott, Tobius Tak,[12] Carol Zee, and Steve Zee.[13]

External video
Nicholas Brothers - Jumpin' Jive
Stormy Weather in color - The Nicholas Brothers and Cab Calloway - Colorized with DeOldify

The brothers were particularly known for their expressive use of their hands and arms while dancing, particularly tap. One of their signature moves was to leapfrog down a long, broad flight of stairs, while completing each step with a split. Its best remembered performance is in the finale of the movie Stormy Weather (1943).[3] In that routine, the Nicholas Brothers leapt exuberantly across the orchestra's music stands and danced on the top of a grand piano in a call and response act with the pianist, to the tune of "Jumpin' Jive".[3] Fred Astaire once told the brothers that this dance number was the greatest movie musical sequence he had ever seen. Numerous articles have been written about this whole dance being filmed in one take and unrehearsed. As unbelievable as that sounds, the Nicholas Brothers confirmed it in an interview shortly before their recognition at the 14th Annual Kennedy Center Honors. The choreographer, Nick Castle, said, "Just do it. Don`t rehearse it, just do it." And so it was done, unrehearsed and in one take, which relieved Harold Nicholas because he did not want to do the rigorous routine over and over all night.[14][3][15]

In another signature move, they would rise from a split without using their hands.[3] Gregory Hines declared that if their biography were ever filmed, their dance numbers would have to be computer-generated because no one now could emulate them.[3] Ballet legend Mikhail Baryshnikov once called them the most amazing dancers he had ever seen in his life.[16]

According to a Los Angeles Times article on the brothers, "Because of racial prejudice, they appeared as guest artists, isolated from the plot, in many of their films. This was a strategy that allowed their scenes to be easily deleted for screening in the Jim Crow-era South".[31]

Carmen Miranda, something of a sensation on Broadway and therefore a subject for exploitation in this appearance, performs four characteristic numbers but plays no part in the film save as herself. Charlotte Greenwood contributes comedy and a bit of dancing, both in the vein she is known for, but it is the Nicholas Brothers, Negro dance team, which stops the show.[32]

— Down Argentine Way (20th Century-Fox) - REVIEW, Motion Picture Herald

• Harold received the DEA Award from the Dance Educators of America [33][34]
• Harold received the Bay Area Critics Circle Award (Best Principal Performance, Stompin' at the Savoy)[33]
• Harold received the Harbor Performing Arts Center Lifetime Achievement Award [33]
• An honorary doctorate from Harvard University was awarded to both brothers [2]
• Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame (1978)[33]
• Ellie Award (1984), National Film Society for both brothers [33]
• Apollo Theater's Hall of Fame (1986), First Class Inductees for both brothers [33]
• Ebony Lifetime Achievement Award (1987) for both brothers [33]
• Fayard Nicholas received Broadway's 1989 Tony Award for Best Choreographer for Black and Blue along with his collaborators Cholly Atkins, Henry LeTang, and Frankie Manning.[35]
• Scripps American Dance Festival Award [36]
• Kennedy Center Honors in 1991 for both brothers who were in attendance [1][33]
• The National Black Media Coalition Lifetime Achievement Award (1992)[33]
• Flo-Bert Award (1992)[33]
• New York's Tap Dance Committee, Gypsy Award (1994)[33]
• A star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7083 Hollywood Blvd (1994)[33]
• Professional Dancer's Society, Dance Magazine Award of (1995)[33]
• The 1998 Samuel H. Scripps American Dance Festival Award for Lifetime Achievement in Modern Dance
• National Museum of Dance Mr. & Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney Hall of Fame Inductees (2001)[37]

• The brothers gave a royal command performance for King George VI at the London Palladium in 1948
• A retrospective of their work in films appeared at the 1981 Academy Awards ceremony [34]
• Carnegie Hall sold out for a tribute to the brothers in 1998
• During the course of their lives, the brothers danced for nine different presidents of the United States[2]
• The brothers' home movies were selected for inclusion in the National Film Registry in 2011 [38] Several of these home movies were preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2016.[39]

• List of dancers

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

• Nicholas Brothers at IMDb
• Nicholas Brothers at the Internet Broadway Database
• Jitterbuzz Lindy Week Review interview with Fayard Nicholas
• 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
• Nicholas Brothers Story on Electro Swing Italia