{"id":17273,"date":"2019-08-02T23:00:41","date_gmt":"2019-08-03T05:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1809956"},"modified":"2019-08-02T23:00:41","modified_gmt":"2019-08-03T05:00:41","slug":"dcc-making-the-team-ep-1-let-the-auditions-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/music-news\/dcc-making-the-team-ep-1-let-the-auditions-begin\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018DCC: Making the Team\u2019 Ep. 1: Let the Auditions Begin"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:ao:image:cmt.com:679265?width=1200&amp;height=675&amp;.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"byline\">by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/cmtcomstaff\/\" title=\"Posts by CMT.com Staff\" rel=\"author\">CMT.com Staff<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\">13m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s 6:50 in the morning when the doors to AT&amp;T Stadium. Phil Whitfield, Stadium ambassador greets the scores of girls ready to dance for a spot as a coveted Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve got one question,\u201d he poses to the hopefuls. \u201cAre you ready?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oh Phil, you have no idea. These ladies are some of the best and brightest, and they are ready to bring it in a big way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of pretty girls here today,\u201d one auditioner remarks. \u201c<em>A lot<\/em> of competition.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We do not envy director Kelli Finglass, Choreographer Judy Trammell, Melissa Rycroft, Neal McCoy, trainer Jay Johnson, and the other judges whatsoever. Whew!<\/p>\n<p>New guest judge Charm La Donna choreographer and creative director joins the panel from L.A. this year. She\u2019s danced with Madonna and choreographed for Meghan Trainor. \u201cI get to live out my own little dream of being a DCC myself,\u201d she said. Us, too, honey. Well, when we watch at home with wine.<\/p>\n<p>Theirs is one tough job this year as Finglass reveals that this audition cycle marks the highest returning class of veterans ever, with nearly 30 reauditioning. Plus a ton of professional dancers from the Dallas Mavericks\u2019 squad, and other teams in the NFL, NBA, and NHL.<\/p>\n<p>But about the new faces: first, we meet Kat, a gorgeous and vivacious 25-year-old North Carolina native. At the age of 19, she became a \u201cHoney Bee\u201d for the Charlotte Hornets\u2019 dance team. She grew up with a bright spirit and will to overcome racial discrimination in her community and school and soar. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to succumb to the environment you grew up in,\u201d she wisely stated.<\/p>\n<p>The second hopeful we meet is the effervescent Amanda, a small-town New Jersey girl with big dreams who moved to L.A. and nearly saw a TV dance job come to life, only to watch it fade away. Tragically, she lost her baby brother at age three, a loss that changed her life forever. \u201cHe\u2019s my driving force, he\u2019s the reason I do everything I do,\u201d she said. There\u2019s something special about Amanda that catches the judges\u2019 eyes. Her perseverance and dazzling light make her one to watch for sure.<\/p>\n<p>Julia, a top market traffic reporter who danced for the Dallas Mavericks, was also featured tonight. She\u2019s taking time off from her big market job to chase her dream, so you know she means business.<\/p>\n<p>Keyna, a 41 former San Diego Chargers cheerleader and 2004 DCC finalist returns in grand fashion\u2013after 15 years. \u201cLife\u201d happened to the dancer, she said. She met her hubs had two kids and got a PhD. Yes, you did, girl, yes! Her dad\u2019s advice? \u201cIf you have it, use it. Cause you never know when you\u2019re not gonna have it anymore.\u201d That\u2019s advice we\u2019re taking, too.<\/p>\n<p>Gina Marie is just 18 years old and just weeks away from graduating from high school. She dazzled the judges with her bright aura and smile and looks very promising as one of the youngest to audition. Why does she dance? \u201cIt\u2019s more than a stress reliever\u2014it\u2019s soul therapy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So about the returning dancers that stood out this year: Meredith, Lily, Taylor, Kristin, Malena, and Victoria were all back and ready to show out. As Finglass remarked, \u201cIt takes a lot of courage to do this,\u201d meaning come back and re-audition after being cut the previous year.<\/p>\n<p>And we can\u2019t <em>not<\/em> mention the, well\u2026 questionable auditions. \u201cIt was a lot happening\u2026 so yeah,\u201d according to Charm. And we\u2019re just gonna leave it at that, bless their hearts.<\/p>\n<p>Overall, it was a tough first day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe raise the bar of excellence every year. They just get better and better every year. Some of the girls I could see in a uniform tomorrow,\u201d Judy admitted.<\/p>\n<p>So who were those early frontrunners? Kat and Amanda for sure, and we can\u2019t wait to see who else made it through to day two. Tune in next Friday, Aug. 9 at 9 PM ET\/8 CT for an all-new <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/shows\/dallas-cowboys-cheerleaders-making-the-team\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\"><em>Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team<\/em><\/a> on CMT.<\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1809956\/ep-one-let-the-auditions-begin\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by CMT.com Staff 13m ago It\u2019s 6:50 in the morning when the doors to AT&amp;T Stadium. Phil Whitfield, Stadium ambassador greets the scores of girls ready to dance for a spot as a coveted Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. \u201cI\u2019ve got one question,\u201d he poses to the hopefuls. \u201cAre you ready?\u201d Oh Phil, you have no idea. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17273","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-13 14:37:20","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17273\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}