Legacy Artist Feature

Chloé Arnold: The Visionary Tap Dancer Who Built an Empire One Step at a Time

From a Washington, D.C. dance studio to Emmy-nominated choreography, a Beyoncé co-sign, and Hollywood film credits — Chloé Arnold made her own lane when the industry had none for her.

By Dance Mogul Magazine  |  Legacy Artist Feature

Chloé Arnold and the Syncopated Ladies at the Tap World NYC Premiere — Dance Mogul Magazine partner coverage

Who Is Chloé Arnold?

There are artists who wait for doors to open. And then there are artists who build the entire building themselves — and invite the world inside. Chloé Arnold is the latter. She is an Emmy-nominated tap dancer, choreographer, director, producer, and entrepreneur whose career has redefined what is possible for women in tap dance and for Black women in the entertainment industry at large.

As the founder of the all-female tap dance company Syncopated Ladies, Arnold has amassed over 200 million views online, earned praise from cultural icons including Beyoncé, Mariah Carey, Janet Jackson, and Whoopi Goldberg, and choreographed for some of the biggest names in television and film. From teaching Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell to tap in the Apple TV+ musical Spirited to choreographing over 70 episodes of The Late Late Show with James Corden, her footwork and vision have reached audiences that tap dance had never touched before.

But beyond the accolades and viral moments lies something deeper — a woman who committed to her art at ten years old, was mentored by the legendary Debbie Allen, chose Columbia University over Harvard, and spent two decades building a platform that centers Black women in an art form that historically overlooked them. This is the Chloé Arnold story — and it is far from over.

A D.C. Girl with a World-Sized Dream

Chloé Arnold was born and raised in Washington, D.C. — a city with deep artistic roots and a thriving dance community that would shape her entire trajectory. She began modeling at four years old for PM Magazine and started dancing at six in a local strip mall studio, where she first encountered tap. By nine, she auditioned for the National Tap Ensemble's junior company and was accepted on probation, giving her three months to prove herself. She did more than that — she thrived, training alongside tap legends Eddie Brown, Buster Brown, Harriet Browne, and LaVaughn Robinson in master classes that most professional dancers never experience.

At ten, she joined Savion Glover's Washington, D.C. Crew, performing at The Dance Place and The Kennedy Center in Glover's All Star Tap Revue — a show that also starred Gregory Hines, The Nicholas Brothers, and Jimmy Slyde. At twelve, she starred in Chloé's World, a cable television documentary. The young prodigy was already building a résumé that most artists would envy at twice her age.

Two years later, D.C. tap educator Toni Lombre recruited Arnold into her program, Taps & Company. Lombre, a former Broadway performer herself, required her students to study jazz, modern, and ballet alongside tap. The company happened to be all-female — a detail that would prove prophetic. Under Lombre's guidance, Arnold's raw talent was refined into something powerful and multidimensional.

At sixteen, Arnold was cast in Debbie Allen's production of Brothers of the Knight at The Kennedy Center. That meeting with Allen would become the most consequential mentorship of her career. Allen recognized something extraordinary in the young dancer and would continue to guide, challenge, and champion her for decades to come.

Columbia University: Choosing Her Own Path

Admitted to both Harvard University and Columbia University, Arnold chose Columbia — not for prestige, but for proximity. New York City was where dance lived, and Columbia placed her in the center of it. She received the prestigious Kluge Scholarship and studied film, recognizing early that the future of tap would be shaped by the camera as much as the stage.

During her years at Columbia, Arnold balanced rigorous academics with a professional dance career that most students could only dream of. She trained at Broadway Dance Center with teachers like Jason Samuels Smith, participated in backstage jams with the cast of Bring In Da Noise, Bring In Da Funk, and performed professionally in Debbie Allen's Soul Possessed at The Kennedy Center and The Alliance Theater. She also taught at Broadway Dance Center and spent summers teaching at P. Diddy's summer camp in Texas and the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles.

Arnold graduated from Columbia in 2002 with a degree in film — a credential that would prove essential as she built her multimedia empire.

The Birth of Syncopated Ladies

In 2003, during a tap improvisation jam at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy in Los Angeles, Arnold noticed something she had rarely seen in professional settings — the room was filled primarily with women. That evening sparked an idea that would change the landscape of tap forever.

It was Allen who encouraged the Arnold sisters to chart their own course in Los Angeles rather than waiting for opportunities that the traditional theater pipeline rarely offered women of color. Arnold moved west, became the managing producer at the Debbie Allen Dance Academy, and founded Syncopated Ladies — an all-female tap dance company that would become her life's work.

The company spent a full decade building its identity — developing original content, honing a signature style that fused tap with hip-hop, jazz, and freestyle, and creating a visual brand that was unmistakable. Then, in 2016, everything changed. Syncopated Ladies released a tap tribute to Beyoncé's "Formation." Beyoncé herself reposted the video across all her social media platforms, and it lived on Beyoncé.com's homepage for several weeks. The video became an instant viral sensation, and the world finally saw what Arnold had been building for over a decade.

The Beyoncé moment was not luck — it was preparation meeting opportunity. Arnold had spent thirteen years perfecting her craft, building her company, and creating content so compelling that the biggest star in the world could not scroll past it.

Hollywood, Television, and Film

Arnold's choreography credits read like a masterclass in range and ambition. She has choreographed over 70 episodes of The Late Late Show with James Corden, working with A-list performers from Will Smith and Hugh Jackman to Ariana Grande and BTS. Her first Emmy nomination came in 2018 for that work — a groundbreaking achievement for a Black woman choreographer in television.

Her film credits are equally impressive. Arnold served as lead choreographer on the Apple TV+ musical Spirited (2022), starring Will Ferrell, Ryan Reynolds, and Octavia Spencer. When co-director Sean Anders was searching for the right choreographer, he discovered Arnold's Syncopated Ladies videos online and knew immediately he had found something extraordinary. Arnold brought on Ava Bernstine-Mitchell and Martha Nichols as associate choreographers and hired 90 dancers to perform in the film — all three lead choreographers were Black women, a historic first for a major studio musical.

Additional choreography credits include Bel-Air, A Black Lady Sketch Show, Hello, Jack!, History of the World Part II, and Jerry Seinfeld's Unfrosted for Netflix. On the acting side, Arnold held a recurring role as one of the Onyx Girls on HBO's Boardwalk Empire and won the first-ever Crew Battle on FOX's So You Think You Can Dance with Syncopated Ladies.

Tap World: A Documentary for the Culture

In 2015, Chloé and her sister Maud Arnold co-produced Tap World, an award-winning feature-length documentary directed by Dean Hargrove, with executive producers Dean Hargrove and Jeff Peters. The film was a love letter to the global tap community — featuring dancers from all walks of life around the world, each sharing deeply personal stories about how tap connected to the essence of who they are.

Dance Mogul Magazine, as a partner in promoting the film, attended the NYC premiere on July 11, 2015 at Village East Cinema. Prior to the screening, Chloé Arnold and the Syncopated Ladies delivered a dynamic live performance that electrified the auditorium. The syncopated movement and rhythms filled the space as the audience sat in great anticipation — their costumes complementing the graceful choreography and masterful use of limited stage space.

The documentary itself was not another film about dance competitions or battles. The producers were clear on their intent — the film had to be real, authentic, and representative of the best of who we are as a people. Each individual's connection to tap went beyond the surface, and the film demonstrated how tap has a way of healing us beyond our imagination, empowering us and giving us the fortitude to achieve all that is great within us.

Tap World trailer — co-produced by Chloé and Maud Arnold | Dance Mogul Magazine partner coverage

Photos from the Tap World NYC Premiere — Dance Mogul Magazine

The Arnold Sisters: A Partnership Built on Purpose

No profile of Chloé Arnold is complete without her sister Maud. Together, the Arnold sisters co-founded Chloé & Maud Productions, the DC Tap Festival (launched in 2009), and co-produce the Hollywood Tap Festival with Debbie Allen and the Debbie Allen Dance Academy. Their partnership extends across every dimension of their professional lives — from producing to performing to philanthropy.

They have been recognized by Columbia University as Rising Stars, by the U.S. House of Representatives as arts preservers and ambassadors, and won the 33rd Annual Mayor's Arts Award for Excellence in Performing Arts. In collaboration with Bloch Dancewear, the sisters designed a custom line of tap shoes — the Chloé and Maud Tap Shoes — featuring a monochrome aesthetic and Bloch's Mega Tap plates for optimal sound resonance.

Through the Chloé and Maud Foundation, the sisters create equal-opportunity access to dance programming and education for underserved communities — including after-school programs in South Central Los Angeles and favelas in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Their mission is simple: every child who wants to dance should have the chance, regardless of zip code or income.

Career Timeline & Key Achievements

Live Performances & Partnerships

Beyond their own sold-out concert tours, Chloé Arnold and the Syncopated Ladies have performed at an extraordinary range of marquee events and partner engagements — a testament to the company's crossover appeal and cultural authority. Performance highlights include CNN's New Year's Eve Live, Mariah Carey's Merry Christmas to All at Madison Square Garden, The Kelly Clarkson Show, Good Morning America, Global Citizen Week, New York Fashion Week, Essence Fest, and the Democratic National Convention.

Corporate and institutional partner performances include the Billie Jean King Leadership Initiative at the U.S. Open, JP Morgan Chase Women on the Move at Radio City Music Hall, and the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund. Arnold has also been featured in Shonda Rhimes and Microsoft's "Language of Leadership" panel discussion, further cementing her role as both an artist and a thought leader.

As a touring act, Syncopated Ladies LIVE has been compared to cultural institutions like Blue Man Group and STOMP — a permanent fixture in live entertainment that young girls in tap can aspire to join.

Cultural Impact: Why Chloé Arnold Matters

Chloé Arnold's significance extends far beyond choreography. She represents a fundamental shift in who gets to lead in tap dance — and in the entertainment industry more broadly. In an art form historically dominated by male headliners and critics who rarely centered Black women's voices, Arnold did not ask for permission. She built her own platform, created her own content, distributed it on her own terms, and let the audience decide.

The internet was her equalizer. As Arnold has said, growing up without financial resources meant traditional paths to publicity were closed. Social media allowed her to bypass gatekeepers entirely, reaching audiences directly with content so undeniable that even Beyoncé could not ignore it.

Her influence is measurable in the generation of young Black girls who now see themselves in tap — not in the chorus, not in the background, but at the center. Through the Chloé and Maud Foundation, through boot camps, through free online tap classes, and through a touring show that visits communities across the country, Arnold is actively building the pipeline she never had.

She has performed in over 21 countries and 35 states as a tap soloist. She is an entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist. She is Columbia-educated, Emmy-nominated, Beyoncé-endorsed, and community-rooted. She is proof that discipline, vision, and an unshakeable sense of purpose can create something the world has never seen before.

Why Dance Mogul Magazine Champions Chloé Arnold

Dance Mogul Magazine exists to inspire self-empowerment through the art of dance — and Chloé Arnold's career is the living embodiment of that mission. She did not wait for the industry to change. She changed it herself. She did not wait for representation to arrive. She created it. She did not wait for validation from gatekeepers. She earned the love of millions by being undeniably excellent.

From covering the Tap World premiere in 2015 as a partner to celebrating her ongoing legacy in 2026, Dance Mogul Magazine recognizes Chloé Arnold as one of the most important figures in modern dance history. Her story is a blueprint for every young artist who dreams of doing something that has never been done — and refuses to take no for an answer.

Explore more artist profiles, dance style deep-dives, and community stories at The Dance Knowledge Hub and the DMM Featured Artist page.

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