REDMOND – For all their polished professionalism on stage at the Deschutes County Fair, tap dancers Carl, Lloyd and Kyle Massey are still brothers.

And as brothers, they had no reservations about firing an empty water bottle back and forth after their performance.

Yet, despite the inevitable sibling squabbles, the three – along with their sister Bethany – have been dancing together for more than a decade.

The Salem-based group, who call themselves the Hot Shot Tap Dancers, said the Deschutes County Fair is one of their regular stops. They will perform today and Saturday on the Family Stage.

Bethany is absent from the fair this year because she is working as a receptionist, but 14-year-old Kyle explained that performing is still work. ”This is our summer job,” the teen said. ”Some people work at McDonald’s; we tap.”

Lloyd, 17, added, ”It’s something we all enjoy.”

Carl, 21, who does most of the choreography for the group, said he began taking dance lessons at 7 after seeing tap dancer Savion Glover on ”Sesame Street.”

”I told Dad I wanted to dance, and my sister jumped in six months later,” he said.

Lloyd and Kyle joined at intervals of roughly two years. Kyle said that he and his siblings took lessons in multiple styles of dance, including ballroom, hip-hop and modern.

”Tap was our favorite, and we were pretty good at it at a young age,” Lloyd said. Still, their tap numbers – mostly choreographed by Carl – are infused with moves borrowed from hip-hop, modern dance and ballet.

In fact, Carl said he is majoring in ballet and modern dance at the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, along with teaching several styles of dance.

”I’m a hard-core ballerina who does hip-hop,” he said.

Kyle said they all have a slightly different style. Lloyd’s dancing is more athletic, while Bethany is the most graceful, he said. Kyle said he likes to focus on different rhythms and sounds while dancing.

Lloyd said the four have danced together so much that it seems a little strange to perform solo.

”We’re definitely better because we’re a group,” he said.

Carl agreed, saying, ”It’s so much easier, when you work with someone for such a long time, to feed off each other.”

Kyle said they’ve talked about starting a dance studio together someday, because all of them give dance lessons, even though they’re looking into a number of divergent career paths.

Carl dances with a New York-based company called Daniel and Some Super Friends, and said he is regularly invited to dance with companies in Las Vegas and Miami. Lloyd said dancing has led to a number of modeling gigs, and plans to move to New York after graduating to pursue modeling.

And Kyle said he’s considering studying automotive engineering, although he plans to keep dancing for fun.

For now, though, they’re happy to collaborate. Carl said that he’s already had Lloyd and Kyle come up to Seattle to help him teach dance classes over the summer.

”We’re family,” Lloyd said. ”If one of us makes it big, we’re going to bring the other ones with us.”

Kyle agreed.

”During the school year, we’re doing other things, but every summer we all come back to dance,” he said. ”(Other people) are excited to spend time with friends. We’re excited to leave (and) go dancing.”