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Growing up in the Washington, D.C., area, sisters Maud and Chloé Arnold developed their tap dancing skills under legends such as Harold Nicholas of the Nicholas Brothers, Pegleg Bates, Buster Brown, Gregory Hines and Savion Glover. But as the spotlight slips away from these elder tappers, the former Wheaton residents say they feel it's their duty to pass on the dance tradition to younger generations.

To keep their beloved dance form from becoming a lost art, Maud and Chloé Arnold organized the DC Tap Festival, which took place April 16-18 at the DC Dance Collective in Northwest Washington.

And they brought years of tap connections with them — from their early days at the Wheaton Studio of Dance, to their studies under current and past Broadway stars, to their former classmates at Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, D.C., and Columbia University in New York City — with the intention of connecting new talent to the old in an effort to further the legacy of tap dance.

It was a floor-smashing success, said Maud, 23, and Chloé, 28. More than 150 people showed up to take classes by world-renowned tap dancers and participate in jam sessions. More than 500 stood in line to see local and national performances, including one that featured the sisters themselves.

"The festival ended up being way bigger than we could have even imagined," Maud said.

The festival was designed to celebrate and expand the tap community, especially in the D.C. area, which has slowed down since the 1990s when it was considered one of the epicenters of tap, Maud said.

One of the sisters' first dance teachers, Toni Lombre, a Broadway performer and owner of D.C.-based Taps and Company, said tap dance has a community with its own language that is best passed down through feet.

It's a role the girls took on well at the festival, she said, by mixing classics with rising stars under one roof.

"They understand not only the language of tap, but they understand how to keep the tradition going," she said.

That's not to say the younger tappers can't combine classic moves such as the "BS chorus, which every tap dancer in the world should know," with young, fun and innovative moves, Lombre said.

In fact, Maud said she and her sister were in awe of the raw talent that showed up to jam with them at the festival.

"There is amazing talent — young and old — in this area," she said. "People in D.C. area really holding it down."