DCC’s Victoria Details of Dallas Cowboys Exit, Relationship With Kelli

In a candid new interview with Us Weekly, America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders breakout star Victoria Kalina is filling within the gaps for Netflix followers.

The 24-year-old dancer started by shedding mild on her relationship with Kelli Finglass, the director of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders who has a prolonged historical past with Victoria’s mom, Tina. In response to Victoria, she grew up feeling like part of Kelli’s household.

“We might simply stroll into one another’s homes. My older brother who’s a 12 months older than me, Tristan, and Kelli’s son, Ryan, performed highschool soccer collectively. So I bought to see the entire internal cheerleader spirit from her [back then], bringing cowbells to the video games, yelling [for the team],” she defined. “Samantha, her daughter, and I’d go to nights of coaching camp once we have been 13-years-old watching Kelli and [choreographer] Judy [Trammell] do her factor. ”

Whereas it was clear thatVictoria would pursue Cowboys cheerleading, she and Kelli didn’t have a dialog when she approached the age to check out. She didn’t make the squad throughout her first go-round, however when she grew to become a DCC in 2019, Victoria believes Kelli began overcompensating to make sure she wouldn’t come off as biased towards her.

“I feel some individuals suppose it’s a bonus. It might be totally different if my mother was simply on the group similtaneously Kelli, and even simply was a cheerleader and I used to be merely a legacy. However I feel that added [part of], ‘No, your mother is finest pals together with her’ is the complication,” Victoria advised Us. “And I feel individuals most likely suppose that, ‘Oh, I’m gonna go over to Kelli’s home and be like, gimme the tea.’ However that’s positively not the case. The truth is, she’s attempting to start out from scratch with me, attempting to push apart that private relationship that we’ve. I really feel like [she] provides me a chilly shoulder so she wouldn’t ever play into that favoritism.”

Victoria famous that she did hear from Kelli earlier than she moved to New York Metropolis earlier this summer season.

“She texted me saying, ‘Good luck in New York,’ however proper now she’s closely into coaching camp, so I haven’t heard a lot from her. Earlier than the present got here out, I did go to Mexico as a result of I used to be in her daughter’s marriage ceremony [as a bridesmaid]. That was the final large connection we’ve had,” she defined earlier than including, “I can’t see myself eager to attend a DCC occasion anytime quickly.”

On the Netflix sequence, followers noticed Victoria inform Kelli and Judy that she deliberate to return for the 2024 season.

“Initially, I had gone in with the intention of hanging [my uniform] on the ‘Sure. I’m re-auditioning.’ I had my thoughts set in stone on that. I had my solo track all deliberate out. I had my choreographer all deliberate out. I used to be gonna fly out to satisfy with him and get my routine set. My costume was designed,” she defined, confirming that the ladies funded their very own preparations. “I didn’t need to check them, however I simply needed to see if we have been on the identical web page [about my future]. From rising up round it, I’ve at all times identified and have realized you can typically overstay on the squad — and I by no means needed to do this. You spent 4 years there, you need to have that just about, like, reassurance [of], ‘Sure nonetheless need you right here. You’re nonetheless precious.’”

As an alternative of getting reassurance, Victoria obtained suggestions that she didn’t carry it fairly as laborious as she did in previous seasons.

“Within the assembly, y’all noticed 5 minutes of it, but it surely was an hour and a half. It was what all people else noticed on Netflix’ ,simply longer. Since I wasn’t listening to what I needed to listen to, I in the end was going like, “Effectively I’m simply gonna grasp it up on no now.’ However I by no means wanna make a rash determination. I needed to sit down on it. I needed to get my mother’s opinion. And after speaking about it together with her, she was like, ‘No.’ As a fifth 12 months going into auditions, I felt like my place on the group was threatened. As a fifth 12 months — I do know management just isn’t assured — however you wanna go in like feeling cloud 9 [so] you possibly can lead these different teammates.”

She continued: “Anybody in any profession place, having 4 years below your belt, you wanna see the place you’re going, you wanna see progress. So I simply determined to place my time and vitality elsewhere.”

Victoria defined that she went to Kelli and Judy 5 days after their preliminary assembly to tell them of her alternative. “It was very quick and candy. I simply walked into their the workplace and was like, ‘That is what I’ve determined after our dialog.’”

She added that it’s nonetheless a little bit of a thriller why Kelli and Judy didn’t image her in a management function, however she goes again to the problem of perceived favoritism.

“They pushed the opposite facet of that private relationship, and shut it so tightly the place they didn’t even see me [as an option] and subsequently they mentioned that they didn’t suppose that the ladies would hearken to me or see me as that place,” Victoria mentioned. “I used to be like, ‘Effectively it’s since you don’t [and] it begins from the highest.’ … There was no means I might do something to alter it.”

On the subject of the opposite women on the squad, Victoria mentioned, “I positively had a tough time simply connecting with them.” She nonetheless wonders if the group saved a distance due to her ties to Kelli and Judy, and in addition believes the 12 months she took off in 2021 to work on her psychological well being and struggles with an consuming dysfunction impacted her relationships on the group.

“That one 12 months that I had off , I felt like I used to be being punished by it. …I used to be serving to myself. I believed that will be at the very least just a bit applauded,” she mentioned. “And with psychological well being, I feel that typically is why individuals don’t open up — they really feel like in the event that they do, then they get punished or [viewed] as weaker … ‘No, I used to be doing that so I might be higher.’”

Many viewers have fixated on a scene between Victoria celebrating her birthday with an elaborate setup however with solely her mom in attendance. When she talked about in a separate podcast interview that she invited the ladies on the squad to return over, a number of DCC’s bought defensive within the feedback.

“Envelope invites have been by no means despatched out. I didn’t make any invites and set them within the women’ locker to be like, ‘Hey, be right here at 6.’ It was phrase of mouth, loosely unfold,” Victoria advised Us. “We have been on look [that morning] and I feel that’s when Netflix had lastly determined inside their filming schedule that they have been gonna be like, ‘Hey, we wanna come, we wanna have fun with you. We wanna see the entire thing that goes down within the Kalina family.’ And I used to be like, ‘Netflix will likely be there, cake will likely be there. The extra the merrier.’”

Whereas Victoria mentioned plenty of the ladies have “positively reached out” and mentioned they “didn’t actually know that that’s how I felt,” she’s centered on her subsequent steps.

“After all I’m gonna reply and ‘coronary heart’ the message and every part, however I feel proper now I’m simply being me. I’m determining my new path, new journey and in the event that they wanna stick alongside for the journey, then props to them,” she mentioned.

Talking of that new journey, Victoria is working with a coach to organize for auditions to exhibits in NYC, together with the Radio Metropolis Rockettes. She relocated to the East Coast earlier in July, marking the primary time she’s lived with out her mother by her facet. (Don’t fear, they speak on the telephone every single day and Tina has already come to go to.)

“I simply needed to stand up right here as quickly as doable and get acclimated,” Victoria mentioned, telling Us that the shape required to be a Rockette is totally different from that of a cheerleader. “[Dance coach] Rhonda Malkin has taken me below her wing and I’m truly in her summer season workshop proper now. … I might completely see myself on Broadway as effectively. That will be a dream, so I’m additionally looking for a voice coach. As a result of that’s one factor I’ve by no means dabbled in — appearing and or singing. I’m gonna be open to something. I’m gonna attend any and all auditions which might be on the market.”