Fayard Nicholas (1914-2006).

The elder and taller of the brilliant Nicholas Brothers, Fayard was known as "having the best arms and hands in the business." His fluid torso and eloquent hands wove poetry in counterpoint to the complex tapping. Watching this perfect tap duo, it was difficult to know where Harold (who died in 2000) ended and his brother began. But Fayard was the primary choreographer. In 1989 he created the witty tap number, "I Want a Big Butter and Egg Man" for Broadway's Black and Blue, whose choreographers received the Tony Award that year. Sons of vaudeville musicians, the boys grew up around music and in the theater. They made their debut as the Nicholas Brothers when Fayard was 14 and Harold was 7 and were instantly successful in theater, vaudeville, and movies. The charming child performers grew into astonishing adult dancers who combined classic finesse and hard attack with daring acrobatic jumps and splits. The brothers appeared in more than 30 movies and received a Dance Magazine Award in 1995. Check out the 1943 film Stormy Weather. "Jumpin' Jive," their spectacular number with Cab Calloway, will live forever in memory.