Adorned in neon pink, orange and plenty of sunlight, the Syncopated Ladies, founded by tap sisters Chloe and Maud Arnold, perform a tap routine to Beyoncé’s “Break my Soul.” Tapping to the lyrics, “I'm looking for a new foundation/And I'm on that new vibration/I'm building my own foundation/You won’t break my soul,” Chloe and Maud are, indeed, building a new foundation for Black women and women of color within and across the world of dance.

In an interview with Blavity: Meet the Creators, Maud said, “We are trying to make the world see our African American street dance form as an elevated form of art.” A style of dance that had long been dominated by white men, two Black women who are tap dancing to contemporary Black music and bringing an old genre of dance into the main stream is a feat that no one can diminish. Inspired by the likes of the Nicholas Brothers and their personal mentor Debbie Allen, Chloe and Maud first became popular when Beyoncé posted one of their videos on her website. The duo has since gone viral on Beyoncé’s Facebook page with over 6.8 million views.

With their success, Chloe and Maud are using their platforms and resources to create opportunities for children and women to pursue dance. As a part of their outreach, the duo produces a tap dance festival called the DC Tap Festival. In a 2017 interview with Shondaland, they told Molly Savard

March is our 10-year anniversary celebration, which is very exciting. And we have the largest scholarship program out of any tap dance festival in the world... It’s a place where kids can [find] fellowship, can meet each other, and can create a global network of people who love what they do. 

In recent years, they developed the Chloe and Maud dance shoe at $95 a pair, making them among the most accessible tap shoe on the market. According to the Shondaland interview, they are “the first Black women to partner with a major tap shoe company.”

Chloe and Maud are advocates for education. They told Blavity that they attribute much of their success to the skillsets they acquired while studying at Columbia University, where they both studied film, “A lot of our success has not only been on the dance floor but off of the dance floor because we know how to run a business, we know how to balance a budget, we know how to finish a task.” Their desire to pursue an Ivy League education was spurred by their mentor, Debbie Allen, who told them that they could “broaden the reach of [their] voice through film.”

If you want to learn from the iconic duo, you’re in luck. Chloe and Maud have dance classes online! For the 4–8-year-old crew, the duo has the “Syncopated Babies,” as well as beginner, intermediate and advanced classes. For classes on meditation for dance about joy, you can also sign up for “Joyful Movement.” You can sign up on chloeandmaud.com.