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Starring the Nicholas Brothers
Sep. 26th, 2014 12:11 pmMy lunchtime entertainment today has been rewatching dances by The Nicholas Brothers, Fayard and Harold. Of course there's their famous "Jumpin' Jive" number in the 1943 film Stormy Weather, sung by Cab Calloway, which Fred Astaire famously said was the best dance number he'd ever seen:
I can totally see what Astaire saw in it, the way they transmute such powerful athleticism into liquid grace, the way they subsume their superhuman effort to make it seem like they just sort of float and fly, it's mesmerizing. And as a duo they have this subtle back-and-forth trading of a sort of puppeteer thing between them, where one will seem he's shaping the other's movements out of the air with his own gestures. (It's in the other clip too, I absolutely love that.)
And, the number that reminded me to revisit them, from three years earlier in Down Argentine Way (1940) where they do the singing and the dancing both:
I saw a voiced-over version of this number this morning, in The New Yorker, discussed in terms of Hollywood segregation and dead-ending of black performers, making some solid points that too often get overlooked in Studio System nostalgia:
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/movie-week-argentine-way?utm_source=tny&utm_campaign=generalsocial&utm_medium=tumblr&mbid=social_tumblr
(The embedded video in that article is his narration over the dance number; I recommend it!)
He talks about how the Nicholases could have been, had the talent and work ethic and charisma to be, full-fledged movie stars--imagine them getting a comedy-duo-movie series like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope's "Road" movies! But instead, they're in this system that's glad to showcase them, but only in an isolated number that could be cut from film prints being circulated to certain areas of the country if a local community objected. So their performances are amazing, genius, but also in a way painful reminders of the systemic bottleneck they were stuck in.
I keep rewinding to watch Fayard's face, in particular, in Down Argentine Way, how he keeps looking and reacting to people in the audience, bringing them in with undeniable charisma. The performance they're giving with their faces and bodies, even beyond the dancing, that's what makes it "a number", more than a dance, and that's the test of a star.
I can totally see what Astaire saw in it, the way they transmute such powerful athleticism into liquid grace, the way they subsume their superhuman effort to make it seem like they just sort of float and fly, it's mesmerizing. And as a duo they have this subtle back-and-forth trading of a sort of puppeteer thing between them, where one will seem he's shaping the other's movements out of the air with his own gestures. (It's in the other clip too, I absolutely love that.)
And, the number that reminded me to revisit them, from three years earlier in Down Argentine Way (1940) where they do the singing and the dancing both:
I saw a voiced-over version of this number this morning, in The New Yorker, discussed in terms of Hollywood segregation and dead-ending of black performers, making some solid points that too often get overlooked in Studio System nostalgia:
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/movie-week-argentine-way?utm_source=tny&utm_campaign=generalsocial&utm_medium=tumblr&mbid=social_tumblr
(The embedded video in that article is his narration over the dance number; I recommend it!)
He talks about how the Nicholases could have been, had the talent and work ethic and charisma to be, full-fledged movie stars--imagine them getting a comedy-duo-movie series like Bing Crosby and Bob Hope's "Road" movies! But instead, they're in this system that's glad to showcase them, but only in an isolated number that could be cut from film prints being circulated to certain areas of the country if a local community objected. So their performances are amazing, genius, but also in a way painful reminders of the systemic bottleneck they were stuck in.
I keep rewinding to watch Fayard's face, in particular, in Down Argentine Way, how he keeps looking and reacting to people in the audience, bringing them in with undeniable charisma. The performance they're giving with their faces and bodies, even beyond the dancing, that's what makes it "a number", more than a dance, and that's the test of a star.
