Obituary

Fayard Antonio Nicholas
(1914 - 24th January 2006)
Dancer Supreme

The death of Fayard Nicholas the elder of the world famous Nicholas brothers, brings to an end the story of one of the greatest dance duos the twentieth century had ever seen.

Harold (1921-2000) and Fayard Nicholas, child prodigies from Philadelphia, built on the tradition of brilliant African American dancers such as Bill ‘Bojangles’ Robinson, and are the ancestors of subsequent generations of black entertainers viewed as exceptional dancers such as James Brown, Michael Jackson, Usher.

Bursting onto the black vaudeville scene in the 1930s, as infants, they were so talented that despite the heavy racial restrictions of the day, they ended up on Broadway in musical revues and Hollywood in musical films in record time, whilst still quite young. Those same racial restrictions though, meant that despite being vastly superior in range, interpretive gifts, and technique to Fred Astaire, and having greater flexibility and poise than Gene Kelly, in films they were confined to a very limited arena compared to the two white male ‘superstar’ dancers.

Fayard and Harold were literally born into show business. Their father Ulysses ran a band at the Standard Theatre in Philadelphia in which their mother Viola played piano. Fayard was attending the theatre and seeing the musicians, actors and dancers rehearsing and performing from when he was toddler. Fayard started out by imitating for his brother at home and other children in their neighbourhood what he was seeing on stage- the dancing particularly tap, the acrobatics, the comic timing - Harold seven years younger but very talented, started out by mimicking Fayard. They were so good that when Fayard was 14 they made their stage debut. They rapidly became a local sensation appearing in theatres in Philadelphia where the manager of the famous Lafayette theatre in New York saw them. Their parents were encouraging, -Fayard to pursue dance and maintained his father’s advice to be expressive and use their arms when they danced. By 1932, they were appearing at the internationally famous Cotton Club in Harlem - Fayard was 17, Harold 10 - with great artists like Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington. What made the Nicholas brothers so unique was that whilst the dancing they did was rooted in tap, they incorporated a elements of other styles resulting in a dazzling display of spins, twists, leaps, and acrobatics -each brother mirroring the other- that had never been seen before. Despite its segregated approach Hollywood grabbed them in the early 1930s and that decade saw them moving between film (Pie Pie Blackbird, 1932, Kid Millions 1934, The Big Broadcast 1936) and Broadway (in the legendary Ziegfield Follies, and in the Blackbirds of 1936). In the Broadway production their sensational act would stop the show every night, and they were eagerly welcomed and feted in Europe, where they saw great European ballet companies and ever innovative, incorporated some classical ballet movements into their dance. This approach is the reason why calling the Nicholas brothers ‘the world’s greatest tap dancers’ is actually to sell them short. Like many a genius child prodigy before them, they created something unique, a blend of various dance disciplines, tap, modern, jazz ballet and classical ballet being the most obvious. Georges Balanchine the great ballet choreographer recognised immense talent when he saw it and invited them to appear in a musical he was doing the choreography for on Broadway.

In the 1940s they appeared in 6 musicals for the studio 20th Century Fox. Their part of the films was always something that could stand alone, not integral to the plot or action, so that it could be cut out of the film in order not to offend white audiences in the southern US states. The sensational impact they made in the films meant they were in international demand. The Nicholas brother went on to do tours in various parts of the world, including South America and Europe. They appeared in front of the King of England in 1948 at the London Palladium. Despite this acclaim, the apartheid-like system in their country meant that whilst working at the film studio they could be refused admission to the in house restaurant. It has been reported that famed director David Selznick had to intervene and shame the relevant restaurant head by reminding him that it was due the brothers’ appearance in their films, that there was a studio. Little wonder that staying in Europe in the 1950s became more and more attractive, and as many African Americans before them, they found France particularly welcoming. In 1958 Fayard returned to the US leaving Harold behind and they worked apart for seven years. Changes in the entertainment industry - the end of vaudeville, a different approach to musical theatre - meant that their form of dance was becoming less popular, but black film stars were not yet commonplace either. Harold was for a time married to the only black female film star of her day - Dorothy Dandridge - but any contacts through that and their own long involvement in Hollywood could not translate into chances for decent lead or character roles. In the 1960s the brothers were together again on US television. But the glory days were gone and work did not reach its former heights. In the 1970s, interest in tap dancing started to revive. As often happens, regardless of fashion in their own country, they had not been forgotten on the other side of the Atlantic. First the BBC in 1985 in a programme called Cotton Club Comes to the Ritz featured them, then Channel 4 did a documentary in 1989 We Sing and We Dance: The Nicholas Brothers and the same year Fayard won a Tony award for choreographing a Broadway hit Black and Blue.

They had lived and worked long enough to be rediscovered and become national institutions-although they didn’t receive the kind of financial package that gave them the sources of income actors now have from repeat TV showing of their films. Famous pupils such as Debbie Allen and Janet and Michael Jackson, famous master dancers such as Gregory Hines and Barishnikov lauded them and a whole new generation discovered them. Age though took its toll and arthritis in the 1980s/90s meant an end to Fayard’s flexibility as a dancer. By the time Harold Nicholas died in 2000, they had appeared before nine US presidents, a star on the Hollywood walk of fame, and an honorary doctorate from Harvard. A special concert was staged in their honour at Carnegie Hall in 1998.

The Nicholas Brothers’ legacy lives on in the fantastic, gravity defying movements of those who have mastered various forms of African-American modern dance including breakdancing.

Marsha Prescod