It’s the week of July 4th, but Victoria Kalina is focused on a different type of Independence Day. After spending her entire life in Texas, she’s finishing up packing everything she owns to make a huge change.
“This Southern Belle Dallas girl is about to hit the steps and go full throttle with dance training in the concrete jungle,” she tells me.
Moving to New York City is just the latest in a series of whirlwind events in Victoria Kalina’s life since the June premiere of America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders on Netflix. Kalina, a four-year veteran of the iconic squad, auditioned for the team out of high school and quickly became one of the show’s breakout stars for her vulnerability and openness about the struggles she’s faced as a member of the team, known colloquially as “DCC.”
Addressing the camera from her bedroom, which is notably festooned in piles of DCC-themed garb, Kalina starts out the series by telling the audience that making the squad as a teenager was the best moment of her life, the fulfillment of a lifelong goal after hearing stories of her mother, Tina’s, time on the team.
But as the show goes on, Kalina’s personal struggles as part of the team start to show. She discusses dealing with an eating disorder and depression during her time in DCC, explaining that she took a “gap year” from the team to get more mentally healthy before returning.
“My depression, like, it turns into this bad cycle,” Kalina told the cameras. “Whenever I get into a bad depression, I turn to bad coping skills, which causes bad eating habits. And as a dancer, the hardest thing you can fight are eating disorders plus depression.”
As the show continues, Kalina is seen visibly struggling as she attempts to be “perfect” for DCC director Kelli Finglass and lead choreographer Judy Trammell and fight for a bigger leadership role on the team. Her willingness to open up about her personal struggles have won her many fans online, who criticized the way she was treated by Finglass and Trammell and told Kalina that she deserved to find happiness, with or without DCC.
Kalina tells me she had an idea that she may be featured heavily in the series based on how much she had been filmed and grew nervous as time went on before the premiere about how she would be received.
“In my head I was reviewing everything that I’d said, and I was like, ‘Okay, sometimes I was too brutally honest and I don’t know how that will go,’” she says. “I was questioning and doubting myself.”
But then, she watched the series and began to hear from others with similar struggles. The positive reactions from viewers, she says, has been more powerful than she could have imagined. She’s now glad that she decided to just be herself.
“Once Netflix had started filming us at the beginning of the season, I wanted to promise myself to be completely me, be completely open to anything, since this was such a new experience that we were all diving into,” she says. “I wanted to promise myself to be fully honest with who I am. What I’ve learned, and I hope what other people have learned too, is that being your whole self, honestly and truthfully through and through, is going to connect and hit people harder than when you put up a front.”
Given her devotion to DCC, some fans were surprised when in the final episode, Kalina openly wavered about her decision whether or not to return for a final fifth season. In a tense meeting with Finglass and Trammell, Kalina asks them whether or not they see her as part of the team’s leadership for her last year. When they make it clear they do not, she is obviously crushed—though she soon pastes a big smile back on her face and vows to return to prove herself once again.
But by the end of the episode, Kalina delivers a shocking plot twist. She’s hanging up her boots after all. As surprised as many viewers were by her decision, Kalina says it was just as much of a twist for her in her actual life.
“I was fully ready to step into season five for my veteran year,” she says. “I had my audition song ready to go. I had my trip planned for choreography. I had everything set and ready. I had my costume designed. It was all on track. That conversation, it just hit me like a bullet I wasn’t expecting. I feel like I got blindsided by that conversation, honestly.”
She took some time to think it over, and then made the decision. She was done.
“I took the weekend to process,” she says. “You never want to react to something too soon. So I just sat with it, really thought about pros and cons, and then that’s when I came back to telling the camera I wasn’t going to return.”
That conversation was so painful that Kalina says it is still reverberating in her life. Her mother, Tina, has not been able to watch the full show yet because of how hard the season ended up being for her daughter and especially, how that conversation went down.
“I think she needs to process it in real life before she can watch it and process it as a TV show,” says Kalina.
Kalina then faced an even bigger question. After achieving her life’s dream at such a young age, what was next? She settled on one goal: continuing her dance career in New York.
“There’s so many dance opportunities up there, and I have always admired the Radio City Rockettes,” she says “They are absolutely fabulous and so precise in their movements. When you’re a dancer, you’re always wanting to be a Rockette.”
Moving to New York, though, is about much more than trying to reach another pinnacle of her dance dreams. More than anything, Kalina is excited to live her life on her own terms.
“I feel like since I went straight from high school to the Cowboys, this is my time that I’m finally going away for college, but for life now,” she says. “It’s definitely going to be different, but I seriously cannot wait.”
Also on the agenda? “Oh goodness. Is it silly? I’m excited to date,” she divulges.
“DCC is so time consuming, where I didn’t want to put that effort into dating when I was a cheerleader because you just never knew when an appearance would come up or when a special show would come up,” she explains. “So my whole life I ‘dated’ DCC. I’m excited to find that time in my new routine, new schedule, new life in New York City to go out with girls, to go out and about and meet some people.”
And she’s thankful for all the opportunities DCC and the show have brought her, and the conversations it’s started. One of the main criticisms of the organization since the show premiered is that the cheerleaders are paid low wages for intense, athletic performances and don’t get the respect they deserve. Kalina, however, is hopeful that the team is open to change.
“Their organization is special in the way they make tradition super important,” she says. “However, we do see that growth. Even from when my mom cheered in the ‘80s, we see that there’s been change. There’s been more pay, and there’s been more publicity. There’s been a CMT show. I think that it just is going to take more time for the whole world to be pleased and to see that. But I think it’s going to eventually change just with time.”
She’s also just as invested in the selection process for the 2024 team as we all now are. When I say I am rooting for hopefuls Kelly and Charly, who were featured on the show before being cut, to make it this year, she enthusiastically agrees.
“I fell in love with Kelly and Charly in training camp last year and absolutely loved Kelly being the New Jersey girl,” she says. “I loved Charly and her talent. I will be rooting for them, and I hope to see them on the sidelines watching on my TV, in my little apartment in New York City this season, so they have my full vote.”
Being on the sidelines now, months after she hung up her pom poms, just feels right.
“I feel as though I am right where I am supposed to be,” she says. “I know I’m going to miss performing and being a part of the DCC organization, but…I’ve done it and now I know I’m supposed to be taking that next step. New York City and everything that has come together so far has been just so smooth. It’s meant to be.”
The post Victoria Kalina’s Plan After Dallas Cowboys Cheerleading? Moving Out of Dallas—and Dating appeared first on Glamour.
