With the smallest flicks of their ankles, Lucy Callanan and Scarlett Sexton can string together a drum beat.

From the rolling rat-a-tat of taps to whooshing scuffs, “the noise” of tapping is Lucy and Scarlett’s favorite part.

“It makes it more creative,” Lucy said. “I like when I can hear how the steps are supposed to sound in my head, and then I have to figure out how to move my feet to create it.”

“That —” Scarlett added, “And when you mess up, you know you messed up. You can really hear it.”

Lucy, 13, and Scarlett, 10, will get to bring their skills to Europe — traveling there for the first time — this fall, representing the United States at the World Tap Championships in Prague in October. For the two, who’ve been dancing in Concord since they were toddlers, qualifying for the team is a huge opportunity – they’ll get to meet and train with top-level teachers and compete on an international stage. It also means they get to do their favorite thing in the world with peers from across the country.

“It’s just my everything,” Scarlett said. “It makes me feel good about myself.”

The two have been dancing for longer than they can remember, taking their first classes as toddlers. They began competing just a few years later.

“At Concord Dance Academy we try to focus on being your best self and doing your best — that, when the focus is more on your own journey and your own process, the success follows,” said Hilary Fuller, a teacher and assistant director there. “I think they both live that motto.”

Fuller said that the amount of time and work Lucy and Scarlett were willing to commit this summer shows not only how much they enjoy dancing but also their unique drive and work ethic. Only two Concord Dance Academy students have made this team before.

“It’s pretty intense in terms of the training and time commitment. So that alone is a huge feat,” she said. “In any activity, it’s a huge deal to represent your community on an international stage.”

After auditioning and earning a spot on Team USA, the two dancers received videos of the dances they’d need to learn. They’ll attend several day-long classes practicing with their team in Boston before going to the Czech Republic in October.

On stage, Lucy and Scarlett say they feel powerful and confident, inflated with joy. The stage also a comfort zone, where they feel safe and most like themselves. It’s what fuels them to practice for hours every week, coming home from rehearsals only to lace up their shoes and practice some more.

In doing so, their parents say, Lucy and Scarlett learn far more than just the steps.

Making time for schoolwork, friends and family requires time management. Taking time to memorize and practice the steps — and not “cramming” at the last minute — teaches how to be a dependable member of a team. Recognizing when they’re struggling with a step teaches them how to ask for help. It’s also an emotional outlet — one Lucy, especially, relied on after her father died in 2018.

Even taking time away offers a lesson in balance.

“They absolutely eat, sleep and breathe it,” Scarlett’s mother, Amanda Grady Sexton, said. “But at the same time, you have to remind your kid that it can’t be everything.”

Participating in an international competition brings some pressure, the two dancers said — everyone on the team is focused and wants to do well.

But both feed off a love of healthy competition.

“I like seeing someone on my team — or also not on my team — do well and do their best,” Lucy said. “Then I get to go up and try and do that, too.”