I wrote out a response on word - then lost it somehow...
Her high school was small and the cheerleading squad not competitive. Mostly they just did cheers, danced around, no real routines and maybe cartwheel now and then. To the contrary, she could do a running full body rotation backflip catching a baton between her legs behind her back - then instantly rolling it across her shoulder to her other hand into a curtsy and just keep going as 2 seconds of her routine - by age 8 - when she won her first international competition. This would mean little in a big city, but in a small city and being 4th generation locals, she is very famous here. Generally she would only lead the band if it was on the field.
Her being a cheerleader in title was really her just not being in a position to say no. She saw the other female cheerleaders as trite, silly-headed, with over-bloated egos and shallow. Her competitions were intensely serious to her and she focused on goals overall, setting all else aside.
The competition I referred to was not typical and her entered by mistake - accepted for her overall years of successes resume' - and her coach urged her to drop out. It was a created competition for rythmic gymnastics dance. She never did dance competitions. She is intensely competitive and stayed in. In her thought process, she realized she was going up against some of the best New York School of dance style dancers - who would try to integrate some prop into their routine - and against world class fellow rymthmics competitors who would try to integrate dance into their routines.
She looks much younger than she is - a plus and a handicap. In techical skills she was cutting edge and even had broken a few record barriers, but saw herself as lacking in aesthetics and grace - with longer legged competitors being sleeker. But her smaller size allowed her greater speed in simply geometry and allowed her to be more overtly sensual and sexual without crossing the invisible line not to be crossed.
She keeps voluminious journals and her thought process known. She highly shifted for this competition. She generally wore little to no makeup. But for this she went extreme - bright red lipstick, basically white pancake over her otherwise pale skin, so much red on her cheeks as to look clownish, and a slash angled white silk and net mask covering part of her face and 1 eye. The reason for the mask was it was going to be sexually highly suggestive - only a few critical early seconds - and since her goal then was to be church school teacher of young children. She did not want the inevitable videos to harm potential employment in case those deciding hiring shared the anti-sexuality-dancing views of some such as on this thread. Overall, she wanted to look as young as possible and the clownish nature put it all into a playful fantasy impression.
For props she converted a baton to a cane with the identical length and balance as her bations and a top hat. She felt it critical that she disquise she was twirling and to avoid all recognized twirling actions. She felt if they recognized it as a baton, she had no chance. But if they saw it as a cane and a top hat, it would seem incredibly skilled and unique. Part of the sexuality at the first was for such a diversion of focus of the audience and judges. Her preparation mostly was learning to integrate the top hat into the routine. She is an exquisite juggler, so it was not a great challenge.
She wanted to highlight her youth to looking as young as possible (she looks much younger than she is anyway for size and face), as judges tend to decide if a younger competitor is equal to an older one, they should give it to the younger one for being more advanced for her age.
She had a fairly unusual pattern of performances. She would start out almost clumpsy, even like she was dazed or even maybe on some drug - though make no technical errors - for the first few seconds. This was not only to lower expectations, but to loosen up. Thus, she felt at that first moments judges would conclude that young girl was out of her league and would just allow her to finish her routine until the next real competitor came along. She'd then momentarily pause, take a noticeable deep breathe (actually she said a brief prayer) and then she would explode into her first sequence - so the audience and judges would think "WHOA! Maybe that little girl has something afterall!"
Audiences at some of the competitions are encouraged to be vocal in applause and even shouts and cheers, and she always worked the audience. Generally, she would do a few fast, skillful sequence focusing on speed and apparently complexity - but then end it in a momentary kodax moment poise - which were applause points - but then burst into the next sequence to not let the applause conclude. The ability to go from zero to light speed and back to zero was part of her tactics and ability. She would built this sequentially to her signature poise (when appropriate for the competition), which was on her toes one foot in front of the other with her hands arched over her head (her "angel" poise, or victory poise) coming into it suddenly in some burst-of-speed razzle-dazzle action - for which the audience would give it's concluding applause. But then instead break into her truly best sequence of the performance at blazing speed. That the real conclusion - also generally instantly ending with her final landing knelt on one knee, either her hands on the floor beside her or crossed across her chest - bowing to the judges and audience (actually she was saying a thank you prayer for another successful performance. There are unusally and complex metaphysical views of herself that play into all of this. Her natural abilities were recognized in her at a very young age.)
This was a free form dance competition for which what constitutes best was entirely abstract. She picked atypical music and the theme she followed (not stated) was of a cute young woman being seduced by a classy old gentleman (the top hat and cane), for which she is successfully seduced to sex - very pronouncedly so actually. I could describe how but that'd take quite a few words. The rest of the routine was the invisible he (hat and cane) and her doing a romantic and seductive dance together that was a mix between swing and ballroom style - working that cane and hat thru it all.
While the audience loudly cheered, applauded and even so shout-outs for all competitors, during her's someone shouted out "Go Girl Go!" and then the audience was hooting out faster and faster Go! Go! Go! - and this worked perfectly as speed was her speciality. Her performance was perfect and she, the audience and the judges all knew she had nailed it. Three perfect 10s. The comments were for her originality, technical skill and that if she is that good at her young age (thinking she younger than she was), she's really going to go far. The others had been excellent at dance or rythmics, but all of it had been done thousands of times before. Her routine was unique and did have an overall theme. Romance, sensuality/sexually and dance go well together as a storyline.
That particular performance and prep for it affected her in literal ways. These competitions and her 4-5 hours every day since about age 5 or 6 practicing was at the core of her life focus. She was strictly a no-sex until marriage and even no dating or romance until she was ready for courtship. Overall, she was the perfect goody two-shoes. In her journal, she wrote how somehow in that all she changed from being a girl to a young woman - and was ready to pro-actively start looking for her real-life fantasy man for life (husband).
From what I gather, some competitions, like straight gymnastics are strictly technical. She didn't care much for just gymnastics as to her it was too simplistic, too slow and too boring. As she advanced across her career she increasingly was opting towards more complex competitions that allowed more creativity and personal discretion - plus more away for juvenile areas to more adult - though most had certain requirement actions within the routines. Sensuality/sexuality/aesthetics increasingly applicable and certainly moreso as it more approached adult dancing within her routines.
She was - and remains - a local hero for a decade+ of such victories in her hometown (where we now live) always covered in the little local newspaper -and was famous within her fields of competition. She was violently assaulted with very serious injuries bringing that livelong focus to a crashing halt, along with many other life goals and activities.
Believe what you wish.