A QUARTET of child martial arts stars hope to demonstrate their skipping skills on a new TV programme.

Team Taurus members Dan Casey, 13, Lewis Dark, 14, Nisha Hare, 12 and Yasmina O’Sullivan, 10, spent last weekend at BBC Television Centre in West London.

The quartet were auditioning for new CBBC reality TV show Jump Nation, which aims to find the best skipping performance group in the UK.

After demonstrating their skipping styles, including partner routines, speed skipping and double dutch acts – where two ropes are used – last Saturday, the team were invited back to perform the next day.

They are now waiting to hear if they are among 14 teams out of 26 which performed on Sunday who will feature on the show.

Mary Stevens, an instructor for Kidlington based Oxford School of Martial Arts, said if the team got through they would be asked to perform in front of judges from BBC programmes Fame Academy and Strictly Come Dancing.

She said filming was due to take place between June and August, with the show aired on BBC1 in January.

The winners of the reality TV competition will get to hone their skills at a skipping camp in America.

Ms Stevens said: “The team are flipping brilliant. It is not just that they are talented, they work their socks off.”

Lewis, from Home Close, Wolvercote, said he trained up to seven hours a week as a Team Taurus member.

The Cherwell School pupil said: “We saw Alan Hansen from Match of the Day, which was quite cool.

“We were the last to perform, so we were waiting anxiously – it was quite scary.

“We really want to get through and get on to the show where we can perform in front of the audience and on the TV.”

His mother Natasha said: “It is a fantastic opportunity, which is not going to come along everyday.

“Lewis was very excited. He had been looking forward to the audition for a while.

“It is a very good standard — the team have been working very hard for it.”

ghamilton@oxfordmail.co.uk