An invitation to dance on Friday and Saturday usually means a fraternity party or local club, but for one weekend last quarter, students had a chance to kick up their heels the old-fashioned way. Fayard Nicholas, half of the legendary Nicholas Brothers tap-dancing duo, appeared on campus for a two-day residency in early February.
Fayard, now 89, and his brother Harold, who died in 2000, starred at Harlem’s famous Cotton Club in the early 1930s, performed on Broadway with Fannie Brice and Josephine Baker, and appeared in more than 30 Hollywood films. The team became famous for their soaring split leaps and inventive choreography, including a spectacular staircase routine in Stormy Weather.
Susan Cashion, a senior lecturer in Stanford’s drama department, says the Nicholas Brothers brought African-American culture to mainstream audiences, who previously associated dancing with white stars like Fred Astaire. “They took the form and made it their own,” she says.
The event featured film showings, two question-and-answer sessions with Nicholas and a tap dance class led by Nicholas’s granddaughter, Nicole, a Stanford freshman.
