When viewers of the Netflix documentary “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders” last saw Victoria Kalina, she had decided to hang up her blue and white uniform and leave the NFL’s famed dance team.
Her four years with the DCC punctuated a life spent around cheerleading — Victoria’s mother, Tina Kalina, was a cheerleader herself in the 1980s, and Victoria spent her youth as a DCC junior before auditioning for the team at 18 and making it for the first time the following year at 19.
Today, she’s not only moving away from the 50-yard line, but also from her Texas home, having recently relocated to New York City in pursuit of the next chapter of her dance career. Spirit of dance I caught up with Kalina to chat about life after Netflix, the power of vulnerability, and her advice for young dancers.
How are you? How was your move to New York?
Good! I’m just starting to feel comfortable getting around. I know my neighborhood pretty well. I don’t do as much stupid stuff on the subway anymore. At first, I literally felt like a Looney Tunes with my phone, like I was like, “Hey, where’s my blue arrow pointing?”
It’s coming! You’ve been living in New York for about a month. What made you want to move to New York?
My two big goals in dance have always been the DCC and then the Radio City Rockettes. With the DCC, I knew I wanted to do it when I was young to give me some professional experience and to allow me to live at home and save money. The tenure of a Rockette can also be longer than a DCC. I wanted to do that after I had matured my younger years.
In Dallas and with DCC, we were all isolated. If you were DCC, that’s all you did. But here in New York, there are so many opportunities, and after one show, there are more to come. So, who knows? I’m open to anything.
What does your daily life look like now?
I train primarily with a former Rockette member, Rhonda Malkin. She has taken me under her wing and allowed me to teach my professional style several times a week.
So I teach private lessons and private classes. I train and take private lessons myself in the precision style that the Rockettes demand. I take as many classes and workshops as I can. The studio is my second home. If I’m not at Ripley-Grier (Studios), I’m at Steps on Broadway or the Broadway Dance Center.
I love Danelle Morgan’s precision jazz classes that she teaches at Steps. I take advantage of everything I can from her when I’m there.
What was your background in dance when you were a child?
My mother got me into dance because she was obviously a cheerleader. I have two older brothers and I know deep down she was saying, “Please have a girl, and let her love to dance!” I started at age 2 and stayed in my studio my whole life. I started competing at age 6. I studied ballet, jazz, tap – everything – and did group dances and solos at competitions and conventions. I also had a period where I was trying to become a prima ballerina.
I never made the drill team, but I was a Dallas Cowboys junior varsity cheerleader and took all the classes and summer camps. It wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year of high school that I really turned the corner and said, “Okay, it’s time to start preparing for DCC.”
When I was a kid, I always said, “I want to be a DCC when I grow up.” But I didn’t see things from a mature, starry-eyed middle school perspective until I was older.
In high school, I decided that it would be better to do DCC right out of high school. I thought: I’m fresh, I’m used to training all day, I’m at my best. So why would I want to stop that?
On ‘America’s Sweethearts’: The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders” You were very vulnerable about your struggles with depression and negative body image. What made you decide to be so honest?
At first, no! My mom and I have this “over the top beauty” thing. We like to look perfect. I’m going to be the perfect Victoria. Honestly, it gets so exhausting.
I was like, ‘You know what, I’m going to be honest, because this is what I’m struggling with and it’s not all rainbows and butterflies. This is not life. This is not a job. This is not an opportunity. There are going to be challenges, and I think it’s important for people to know that.’
What was the reaction of the viewers?
I have received so many positive messages. I am still reading them all. It is amazing how a small gesture of openness can touch so many people.
Once the shooting was over and it was time for the editors to take over, I was very anxious, I thought maybe I shouldn’t have done that. I thought people were going to think I was weak. They were going to read me completely the wrong way. But it’s quite the opposite.
You also shared some of your experiences of not always feeling like you fit in among your teammates. What advice would you give to a young dancer going through the same situation?
I would say that you have to lean on your support network and those who are really there to support you fully. I know that personally, when those tough times happened, I just wanted to be alone. But I talked to my mom and I leaned on my friend who is like my older sister. Even though sometimes I didn’t have those connections with the team, I still had connections in my life.
Find those people, lean on them, cherish them. Also, remember that you are there for your passion for dance. If you are in a dance studio and you don’t really mingle with the crowd and your group, but you love to dance, you love performing, and you love doing what you do, remember that.
Is there anything you wish you had told your younger self?
Everything has to be right. I truly believe in that. Even my first audition for the DCC, I was rejected and I came back. I know in tough times it’s hard to see, but if you persevere, you’ll see it eventually.
