But the St Thomas More grade two pupil is loving every minute of her new sport.

“The best part is catching Sophie when we do freearm,” she said.

Danielle was competing for Jayde Calisthenics Club at yesterday’s Royal South Street Society calisthenics competition in the division one sub-juniors section.

Her troupe — dressed in blue, white and silver cossack-style outfits — performed “Russian Winter Wonderland” to smiling perfection.

But The Courier discovered that behind the scenes, South Street is anything but serene.

Backstage, it’s a hive of activity as performers file in and out of dressing rooms in a wide range of lycra and sequins.

Once the backstage manager calls “Ready coach?”, it’s all hands on deck as the competitors are deftly lined up, reminded to smile and even frantically run behind the scenes from one side of the stage to the other.

At the same time, coaches keep a close watch on a large television screen that shows the audience’s perspective.

After about three minutes of graceful movement, it’s all over for another performance, with the children – and coaches – smiling in relief as they file back off stage and into their dressing rooms to wait to hear the judges’ verdict.

But placing or no placing, it’s clear by their big grins that this is one troupe that has enjoyed every minute of their time on stage.

“It’s really fun,” Danielle said.

The South Street calisthenics competition continues today with division one juniors and championship sub-juniors while the McDonald’s junior championships will be held tomorrow.

Follow @FionaGran