At just three years old, Brandee Lara knew she wanted to be a tap dancer. 

A dance professor at Chapman since 1997, Lara is often recognized for her performances in the musicals “42nd Street,” “Anything Goes,” and Broadway musical “George M!” and was  awarded the 2015 Dance Teacher Award for Higher Education by Dance Teacher Magazine. And while she enjoys performing in productions, the most rewarding part of tap dancing, she said, is teaching students.

“There aren't any big tap dance stars who don't go out and teach,” Lara said. “It’s all about teaching the next generation.”

Lara was one of the three professional tap dancers to speak at Chapman’s Musco Center for the Arts’ event “Tap Dancing Diaspora” Nov. 19, which was streamed live on YouTube. She was joined by Broadway dancer Ron Dennis and international tap star Chloe Arnold.

Arnold  is known for a routine – done alongside her Emmy-nominated dance crew, the Syncopated Ladies – titled “Beyonce Tap Salute,” which went viral. 

“What Beyonce did for us in 2016 was amazing,” Arnold said. “Since then, the Syncopated Ladies and I have been hired nonstop. For her as a Black woman to have that much power and for her to give that to her sisters is so beautiful.”

In the video, Arnold and the Syncopated Ladies create a tap dance version of Beyonce’s “Formation,” prompting a  nationwide response of young women recreating the routine. Beyonce herself applauded Arnold for creating a movement and inspiring a younger generation. 

“It meant so much to me that someone I admired liked my work,” Arnold said. “It was a strong motivator. Beyonce helped the Syncopated Ladies and I become full-time professional dancers.”

As one of the few Black women in the genre of tap dancing, Arnold told The Panther that her biggest struggle was not having someone in the spotlight to look up to.

“Black women haven’t gotten the same notoriety and haven’t been locked into history,” Arnold said. “When I came into the realization of where I was in the world, it motivated my purpose to make it happen.”

Despite the obstacle of representation, Arnold persevered, appearing alongside the Syncopated Ladies on the dance television show “So You Think You Can Dance” in 2014 . She hoped Chapman students who wished to follow in her remembered the importance of being their authentic selves.

Lara, as a lover of teaching tap, echoed Arnold’s sentiments. Lara advised students who loved tap to stick with it through any adversity.

“Set goals based around what you want, not what you think other people want from you,” Lara said.