Radcliffe College was a women's liberal arts college in Cambridge and functioned as the female coordinate institution for the all-male Harvard College. It was one of the Seven Sisters colleges and held the popular reputation of having a intellectual and independent-minded female student body. Radcliffe conferred Radcliffe College diplomas to undergraduates and graduate students for the first 70 years of its history and joint Harvard-Radcliffe diplomas to undergraduates beginning in 1963. A formal "non-merger merger" agreement with Harvard was signed in 1977, with full integration with Harvard completed in 1999. Today, within Harvard University, Radcliffe's former administrative campus is home to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, former Radcliffe housing at the Radcliffe Quadrangle has been incorporated into the Harvard College house system. Under the terms of the 1999 consolidation, the Radcliffe Yard and the Radcliffe Quadrangle retain the "Radcliffe" designation in perpetuity; the "Harvard Annex," a private program for the instruction of women by Harvard faculty, was founded in 1879 after prolonged efforts by women to gain access to Harvard College.

Arthur Gilman, Cambridge resident, banker and writer, was the founder of what became The Annex/Radcliffe. At a time when higher education for women was a controversial topic, Gilman hoped to establish a higher educational opportunity for his daughter that exceeded what was available in female seminaries and the new women's colleges such as Vassar and Wellesley, most of which in their early years had substantial numbers of faculty who were not university trained. In conversations with the chair of Harvard's classics department, he outlined a plan to have Harvard faculty deliver instruction to a small group of Cambridge and Boston women, he approached Harvard President Charles William Eliot with the idea and Eliot approved. Gilman and Eliot recruited a group of prominent and well-connected Cambridge women to manage the plan; these women were Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, Mary H. Cooke, Stella Scott Gilman, Mary B. Greenough, Ellen Hooper Gurney, Alice Mary Longfellow and Lillian Horsford. Building upon Gilman's premise, the committee convinced 44 members of the Harvard faculty to consider giving lectures to female students in exchange for extra income paid by the committee.

The program came to be known informally as "The Harvard Annex." The course of study for the first year included 51 courses in 13 subject areas, an "impressive curriculum with greater diversity than that of any other women's college at its inception. Courses were offered in Greek, English, French and Spanish; the first graduation ceremonies took place in the library of Longfellow House on Brattle Street, just above where George Washington's generals had slept a century earlier. The committee members hoped that by raising an enticing endowment for The Annex they would be able to convince Harvard to admit women directly into Harvard College. However, the university resisted. In his inaugural address as president of Harvard in 1869, Charles Eliot summed up the official Harvard position toward female students when he said, "The world knows next to nothing about the capacities of the female sex. Only after generations of civil freedom and social equality will it be possible to obtain the data necessary for an adequate discussion of woman's natural tendencies and capabilities...

It is not the business of the University to decide this mooted point." In a similar vein, when confronted with the notion of females receiving Harvard degrees in 1883, the University's treasurer stated, "I have no prejudice in the matter of education of women and am quite willing to see Yale or Columbia take any risks they like, but I feel bound to protect Harvard College from what seems to me a risky experiment."Some of President Eliot's objections stemmed from 19th century notions of propriety. He was against co-education, commenting that "The difficulties involved in a common residence of hundreds of young men and women of immature character and marriageable age are grave; the necessary police regulations are exceedingly burdensome." The committee persevered despite Eliot's skepticism. Indeed, the project proved attracting a growing number of students; as a result, the Annex was incorporated in 1882 as the Society for the Collegiate Instruction of Women, with Elizabeth Cary Agassiz, widow of Harvard professor Louis Agassiz, as president.

This Society did not have the power to confer academic degrees. In subsequent years, on-going discussions with Harvard about admitting women directly into the university still came to a dead end, instead Harvard and the Annex negotiated the creation of a degree-granting institution, with Harvard professors serving as its faculty and visiting body; this modification of the Annex was chartered by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as Radcliffe College in 1894, the eponym being early Harvard benefactor Lady Ann Mowlson. The Boston Globe reported "President of Harvard To Sign Parchments of the Fair Graduates"). Students seeking admission to the new women's college were required to sit for the same entrance examinations required of Harvard students. By 1896, the Globe could headline a story: "Sweet Girls, they Graduate in Shoals at Radcliffe. Commencement Exercises at Sanders Theatre. Galleries Filled with Students. Handsome Mrs. Agassiz Made Fine Address. Pres Eliot Commends the Work of the New Institution."

The Globe said "Eliot stated that the percentage of graduates with dis

Tāṇḍavam is a divine dance performed by the Hindu god Shiva. Shiva's Tandava is described as a vigorous dance, the source of the cycle of creation and dissolution. While the Rudra Tandava depicts his violent nature, first as the creator and as the destroyer of the universe of death itself, the Ananda Tandava depicts him as joyful. In Shaiva Siddhanta tradition, Shiva as Nataraja is considered the supreme lord of dance; the Tandavam takes its name from Tandu, the attendant of Shiva, who instructed Bharata in the use of Angaharas and Karanas modes of the Tandava at Shiva's order. Some scholars consider that Tandu himself must have been the author of an earlier work on the dramatic arts, incorporated into the Natya Shastra. Indeed, the classical arts of dance and song may derive from the mudras and rituals of Shaiva tradition; the 32 Angaharas and 108 Karanas are discussed by Bharata in the 4th chapter of the Natya Shastra, Tandava Lakshanam. Karana is the combination of hand gestures with feet to form a dance posture.

Angahara is composed of seven or more Karanas. 108 karanas included in Tandava could be employed in the course of dance and personal combats and in other special movements like strolling. The dance is a pictorial allegory of the five principle manifestations of eternal energy: Srishti - creation, evolution Sthiti - preservation, support Samhara - destruction, evolution Tirodhana - illusion Anugraha - release, grace Thus Tandava symbolizes the cosmic cycles of creation and destruction, as well as the daily rhythm of birth and death. Tandava, as performed in the sacred dance-drama of southern India, has brisk movements. Performed with joy, the dance is called Ananda Tandava. Performed in a violent mood, the dance is called Rudra Tandava. In the Hindu texts, at least seven types of Tandava are found: Ananda Tandava, Tripura Tandava, Sandhya Tandava, Samhara Tandava, Kali Tandava, Uma Tandava and Gauri Tandava. However, some people believe. "How many various dances of Shiva are known to His worshipers I cannot say.

No doubt the root idea behind all of these dances is more or less one and the same, the manifestation of primal rhythmic energy. Whatever the origins of Shiva's dance, it became in time the clearest image of the activity of God which any art or religion can boast of." - Ananda Coomaraswamy The dance performed by Shiva's wife Parvati in response to Shiva's Tandava is known as Lasya, in which the movements are gentle and sometimes erotic. Some scholars consider Lasya to be the feminine version of Tandava. Lasya has Jarita Lasya and Yauvaka Lasya; the Hindu scriptures narrate various occasions when other gods have performed the Tandava. When Sati jumped into the Agni Kunda in Daksha's Yajna and gave up her life, Shiva is said to have performed the Rudra Tandava to express his grief and anger; the Shivapradosha stotra says when Shiva performs the Sandhya Tandava, the other gods like Brahma, Sarasvati and Indra play musical instruments and sing Shiva's praises. Ganesha, the son of Shiva, is depicted as Ashtabhuja tandavsa nritya murtis in temple sculptures.

Shiva Tandava Stotram is a stotra that describes Shiva's beauty. The Bhagavata Purana talks of Krishna dancing his Tandava on the head of the serpent Kaliya. According to Jain traditions, Indra is said to have performed the Tandava in honour of Rishabha on the latter's birth. One Hundred and Eight Shiva Thandavam Manohar Laxman Varadpande. History of Indian Theatre. Abhinav. ISBN 978-81-7017-278-9. Description of the Class Dance, Chapter IV of the Nāṭyaśāstra

Fayard Antonio Nicholas was an American choreographer and actor. He and his younger brother Harold Nicholas made up the Nicholas Brothers tap dance duo, who starred in the MGM musicals An All-Colored Vaudeville Show, Stormy Weather, The Pirate, Hard Four; the Nicholas brothers starred in the 20th Century-Fox musicals Down Argentine Way, Sun Valley Serenade, Orchestra Wives. Nicholas was born in Alabama, but grew up in Philadelphia, he learned to dance while watching vaudeville shows with his brother while their musician parents played in the orchestra. His father, Ulysses D. Nicholas, was a drummer and his mother, Viola Harden Nicholas, was a pianist. In 1932, when he was 18 and his brother was only 11, they became the featured act at Cotton Club in New York City; the brothers earned fame with a unique style of rhythm tap that blended "masterful jazz steps with daredevil athletic moves and an elegance of motion worthy of ballet". They appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway and in London they worked with jazz choreographer Buddy Bradley.

The performances led them to a career in film. Nicholas appeared in over 60 films, including the 1943 musical Stormy Weather with their signature staircase dance, his career was interrupted from 1943 to 1944 when he served in the U. S. Army during World War II. Nicholas achieved the rank of Technician fifth grade while in WWII. After his dance career ended and his wife, Katherine Hopkins Nicholas, embarked on a lecture tour discussing dance. In 2003, Nicholas served as "Festival Legend" at the third "Soul to Sole Tap Festival" in Austin, Texas. Nicholas was inducted into the National Museum of Dance C. V. Whitney Hall of Fame in 2001. Nicholas was married three times, he remained friends with Geraldine Pate, after their divorce. His second wife was Barbara January, he married dancer Katherine Hopkins in 2000. He was a member of the Baháʼí Faith. Nicholas died of pneumonia following a stroke in 2006 at age 91, his wife Katherine died in 2012. Nicholas Brothers official website "Fayard Nicholas Biography".

Filmreference. 2008. Retrieved 2009-01-22. Fayard Nicholas at Find a Grave Fayard Nicholas at the Internet Broadway Database Fayard Nicholas on IMDb Fayard Nicholas's oral history video excerpts at The National Visionary Leadership Project 1998 Interview with Fayard Nicholas