If you’re an avid “America’s Got Talent” viewer or you just tune into it once in a while, this season was a big one for Lake Stevens and two of its young dancers.

Erik Linder, who hails from Lake Stevens and Rickie Taylor, from Everett, landed themselves in the Top 20 performing ballroom dancing in front of a large crowd and three powerful judges.

Linder and Taylor are both eight years old and they each started dancing when they were only four.

“My parents started dancing for a little bit and I would watch them and I asked if I could do it,” Linder said. “I took a couple of classes and now I am still doing it.”

The two were paired up in a dance class because they were the same age and the same size. In a short period of only four years, they have learned and perfected 10 different dances including the waltz, tango, foxtrot, Viennese waltz, quickstep, cha cha cha, samba, rumba, paso doble and the jive.

While on “America’s Got Talent” the duo performed the jive, the paso doble in quarter finals and then last, but certainly not least, they performed a cha cha cha/tango combination.

“My favorite performance was the tango/cha cha cha,” Linder said. “It was Michael Jackson, Black and White.”

After returning from another competition overseas, Taylor and Linder found out they were holding try-outs for the popular television show in Tacoma.

“We had just come from England, it was the week after we came back, we saw that there was an audition and we went to try and we got very far,” Taylor said.

Neither of the kids seemed to be intimidated by the judges or the huge audience and in fact, both said they had a great time.

“My favorite part was meeting all the new friends and getting to meet the producers,” Taylor said.

“Meeting everyone and getting to perform was the best part,” Linder said.

As far as the judges go, they both really thought highly of Sharon Osborne, David Hasselhoff and Piers Morgan.

“I thought that they all had their own opinion and they each were very kind,” Taylor said.

Taylor enjoys meeting other competitors and all of the traveling she gets to do. Her goals are lofty when it comes to ballroom dancing.

“I want to be a Blackpool Finalist,” she said, talking about the world competition held each year in Blackpool, Englnd.

“I want to keep dancing as long as I can,” Linder said. “It’s fun and we’ve (he and Taylor) been pretty good friends.”