LAWRENCE — When she was just 2 years old, Lyahnnette Morales told her mom she wanted to dance.
Ever since, Yanet Morales has been taking her daughter, now 15, to dance classes and competitions.
Most recently, these included daily 3½-hour drives each way from Lawrence to Brewster, New York, to practice with the USA tap team and coach Jillian McNamara.
On Monday, Lyahnnette and her mom flew to Prague in the Czech Republic where the 15-year-old will perform today, Friday, at 2:30 p.m. with Team USA at the International Dance Organization World Tap Championships.
All the dedication and work has paid off in rhythm, moves and poise as Lyahnnette was invited to audition and won a place on the USA tap team. She is a junior but is dancing on the USA adult team, typically for dancers 17-30.
In a dining room table interview at Lyahnnette’s home in the Mt. Vernon section of Lawrence on Saturday, Lyahnnette and two of her strongest supporters reflected on her dance journey.
It’s been a family- and friend-supported endeavor fueled by a desire to further her art, represent the city and set a positive example for kids coming up.
Sitting at the table was a close family friend, Gabriela “Gabby” Taveras of Lawrence, the first black woman to represent Massachusetts in the Miss America competition, in 2018.
Gabby has known Lyahnnette since she was a baby in a bouncer and remembers squeezing her cheeks, trying give her dimples. They are always talking.
“I am overly into her dance,” Gabby says. “Lyahnnette and I consult all the time. She is like, ‘This is what I am thinking, what do you think?’”
Lyahnnette has also watched and learned from Gabby at pageants. Lyahnnette performed, as a child, in 2018, as a member of the Mayflower Princess Program — put on by The Miss Massachusetts Scholarship Pageant — before Gabby’s pageant competitions.
Yanet says Lyahnnette always wanted to be on stage. She has an older sister and would see her performing and Lyahnnette would ask, “When will it be my turn, when will it be my turn,” Yanet said.
At 2 years old, Lyahnnette started out at Interstate Gymnastics and Dance in Methuen in gymnastics. At 3 she transferred to the Nancy Chippendale Dance Studio where she learned the foundation of tap dancing from 3 to 11 years old. From 11 to 15 she danced at the Elite Academy of Dance in Shrewsbury.
She is now a company dancer at Stephanie Kemp’s New England Dance Academy in North Attleboro.
She has also studied ballet, pointe, jazz, tap, lyrical, modern, contemporary, hip-hop, musical theater, and acrobatics.
In 2019, she performed at the Rolex Grand Prix in London, and that same year, she represented the United States at the World Tap Championships in Riesa, Germany.
She performs with Sole Talk, the tap company led by Chloe and Maud Arnold, and Speaking in Taps, founded by Aaron Tolson.
In 2022, she was a dancer in the Whitney Houston biopic, “I Wanna Dance with Somebody.”
Lyahnnette has been playing violin since she was 8 years old and is first violinist in the orchestra at Boston University Academy Orchestra, where she is a sophomore on a full academic scholarship.
She says her musical training and familiarity with changing time signatures helps her tap to changing rhythms in dance routines.
Lyahnnette is also a Dance Ambassador for Soul de Soul Dance Convention and Alive Dance Tours, inspiring the next generation of dancers.
Lyahnnette has two role models in her parents.
From her dad, Efrain, she has learned the importance of disciplined training.
She says he always tells her to do what is necessary so she can do what is possible, and soon enough she will find herself doing the impossible.
From her mom she gets creative inspiration, not to mention a tireless road warrior driving her daughter to classes and competitions.
Her mother encourages her to do everything in the spirit of excellence.
This week and weekend mother and daughter are on the latest stop in the Lyahnnette dance journey, in Prague, dancing on a world stage.
She and teammates will perform to the song “Waiting Room,” competing against teams from other nations tapping to choreographed routines and vying for a world championship.
Lyahnnette and her mom are having a grand time in Prague, Yanet said on Thursday.
They took a vintage car tour, 2½ hours seeing beautiful Prague.
“The most exciting sight was the astronomical clock,” Yanet said. “Not only because the clock is over 600 years old, but also because the sun dials show the position of the sun and moon at each hour of the day.”
Othwerwise, they have been in the arena every day supporting the team.
