Sandie Newton
CBS DFW
May 21, 2012

DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) – They have been America’s Sweethearts since 1972, when they first graced the field at Texas Stadium. Now the iconic cheerleading squad has picked their 2012 candidates to attend training camp. For the next month and a half candidates will compete to win a coveted spot on the official Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader roster!

Two weeks ago, hundreds turned out for the first day of the 3-day audition process. In all, 79 finalists, representing five countries and 19 states, were whittled down. This past weekend they took to the Cowboys Stadium field, to dance, kick and shake their poms.

Fourteen judges (I was honored to be a judge once again – this my 10th year!) deliberated long and hard, as competition was especially tough this year. There were 25 veterans returning to try out, along with the super talented newbies.

In the end – a great group of 45 were chosen and thrilled to start the training camp process.

For the past seven years, as a part of their top rated reality show Making the Team, CMT has been on board filming the entire audition process. Each year the show consisted of just eight episodes but this year – due to popular demand – they will film 13 weeks of segments.

Apparently, producers know the world watches not only America’s Team but the Sweethearts as well!

Also making Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders news this week – Men in Black 3 opens and the stars, Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones, invited all the top American cities to donate an item, representing their state, to be placed in a time capsule that will be sent to Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

CBS 11 decided DCC poms would be a perfect choice, so three of the cheerleaders donated poms and they were sent to Hollywood for official placement inside the time capsule. Both stars of the movie loved the bright and shiny poms, but Will Smith did mention it was hard to hold them as he is a proud native Philadelphian and his Eagle Pride hurt just a little with all that silver and blue!

Movie executives promise the capsule will not be opened for 43 years!

The new 2012 DCC squad will debut on the field in August at the first pre-season home game and Men in Black 3 opens this week citywide.

It’s all a win/win in my book!

Lots of great photos have been posted on the Cincinnati Bengals website. Click here and check ‘em out!

Watch the opening number:

By JoAnne Killeen
Holmen Onalaska Courier-Life
5/19/2012

ONALASKA — Alayna Halverson was just 6 years old, but she already knew what she wanted to be when she grew up: a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader.

Now 18 and a senior at Onalaska High School, Halverson chased her dream all the way to the Big D last month and tried out for the storied squad.

No, she didn’t make the team. But the experience, she said, taught her some lessons she’ll remember the rest of her life, namely to never let self-doubt get in the way of a dream.

“I would have regretted not doing it when I had the chance,” Halverson said.

Halverson has been dancing since she was 2 years old. She watched the show “Making the Team” on the CMT network — a program that chronicles the drama of the tryout process — and pictured herself among the hundreds of girls trying out.

With her mother and grandmother’s support and efforts to build her confidence, Halverson overcame the thought of not being good enough.

“Mom sat me down and said it would be the coolest thing she had ever known anyone to do and that she had never done anything that cool,” said Halverson, an all-state dancer.

The tryouts were nothing like she imagined, and she found out the “reality” show “Making the Team” isn’t very real. She and her fellow applicants had to redo several scenes, such as entering the room several times before the camera people approved it all. “The cameras dictated what went on,” Halverson said.

Sixteen years of practicing for the moment evaporated in one single minute of tryout time. Halverson and other applicants had one minute to do a freestyle dance to a musical piece randomly picked by the judges.

She was No. 15 out of 513 girls trying out that day, so there wasn’t much time to worry. There were girls from all over the world, including Japan and North Korea. There were also two grandmothers among those trying out.

Unfortunately, the former Miss Onalaska contestant wasn’t “cute” enough for the Dallas Cowboys. Turns out appearance counted a lot more than performance, Halverson said. “How cute you looked when you were dancing counted for so much more than I thought it would. Here, it’s much more about technique as well as performance.”

Also, she said, it seemed contestants scored bonus points for each glittering rhinestone.

“I was trying to hold back my tears while I left,” she said. “I hardly made it out of the gate. It was very overwhelming and emotional and exhausting.”

For consolation, she remembered a coach once telling her that even if you are the prettiest shade of purple, if they are looking for blue, you’re never going to get it.

The Cowboys were looking for blue, it seems.

She saw a camera focused on her as she left. Halverson lifted her head up.

“As disappointing as it was not to make it, I feel better,” she said. “I thought I would feel like a huge failure. It’s just the opposite.”

Anna Marden
The Boston Globe
5/21/2012

Dancers hoping to be selected for a coveted spot on the Celtics dance team attended a workshop May 20 to help them prepare for the tryouts next month.

About 45 girls turned out for the workshop, where current Celtics Dancers taught them a routine and gave tips on how to get ready before the auditions.

Auditions take place at the end of June and will be held in Boston, New York and Los Angeles. Visit the Celtics Dancers’ audition webpage for more information.

[photo gallery]

By Chris Dunker
Beatrice Daily Sun
5/18/2012

“America’s Sweethearts” dance, cheer and help out in the community.

They are the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.

Jillian Utley, who graduated last weekend with the Beatrice High School class of 2012, tried out for the squad a week prior to graduation on a whim.

“We were watching the show (“Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Making the Team”) and I thought it looked really cool,” Utley said. “My mom asked if it was something I wanted to do, and I said yes.”

Utley, who has been “dancing since I could walk,” and was a member of the BHS Dance Team, thought it to be a unique opportunity, so she filled out the paperwork, signed the waivers and TV release forms and paid the $25 fee to try out.

“We went down to practices first — you can practice before the actual tryouts — and we have family down there so we were able to stay with them,” Utley said. “Once you get to the actual tryouts, they have a walk-through the night before.”

Each potential cheerleader tells the 16-judge panel their name, age and where they are from, in addition to something unique about themselves, Utley said.

“I said my name is Jill and I’m 18 and from Nebraska,” she said. “And since I was named Jill, I was determined to marry someone named Jack.’

Her comment caught the eye of one of the television producers, Utley said. She hopes the moment may land her on the first episode of “Making the Team.”

After introductions, each woman is given 30 seconds to do a freestyle dance to a random musical selection.

“You don’t want to go in with a particular routine in mind because it might not work with the music,” Utley explained. “You just really want to get their attention.’

A total of 609 women tried out for the team. After the first round of tryouts, the judges narrow the pool to 150 women.

Utley didn’t make the first cut, but that hasn’t dampened the appeal of one day cheering for a professional football team.

“Once college is over with, I think I want to try that again and see how it goes,” she said. Many of the other women who tried out for the squad were 25 and older.

“It’s definitely on my bucket list,” she said.

Click here to check out a photo gallery from Saturday’s Cincinnati Bengals Cheerleaders final audition at Newport Syndicate in Newport, Kentucky.

May 15, 2012

Lindsay Orr, a 2011 graduate of Heard High School and former Braves cheerleader, has been named as a member of the 2012 Atlanta Chiefs cheerleading squad.

The Chiefs are a semi-professional football team and member of the GDFL which plays its home games in Sandy Springs. Lindsay competed against several other talented girls to land the spot and hopes to one day become an Atlanta Falcon cheerleader.

She will cheer for the Chiefs until the end of the season when she is expected to join the Georgia Force arena football cheer squad.

The judges who picked Lindsay included two Falcons cheerleaders and several accomplished Atlanta area dancers. Lindsay’s new cheer coach is a former Dallas Cowboy cheerleader.

“I am very happy and excited to become a part of the Atlanta Chiefs organization. It has always been a dream of mine to become a Falcons cheerleader and I hope this will be the first step to reaching that goal.”~Lindsay Orr

Final auditions for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders took place yesterday. At the end of the day, the field of 70 candidates was narrowed down to the 45 accepted into the team’s training camp. This group has a lot of hard work ahead, because there are still cuts to be made. By the end of August, this group will be further narrowed down to approximately 36 members.

2012 DCC Training Camp
(click here to view full size)