Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders director Kelli Finglass revealed where her relationship stands with associate choreographer Shelly Bramhall after cutting Shelly’s daughter, Dayton, for the third consecutive time.
“We are still standing,” Finglass, 61, exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, June 23. “Shelly is still reporting to work and contributing in a big way. She always has. Dayton has taken a new role at a job in Texas. I think she has other truths and other chapters for her to explore.”
Dayton’s dramatic cut played out on season 3 of Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, which premiered June 16. After Dayton failed to make training camp on her third time auditioning for the team, Shelly — who has a decades-long friendship with Finglass — called out the DCC director.
“I’m not OK,” Shelly could be heard saying. “[Dayton] did everything they asked her to do. You take strangers that you don’t know and you can’t even give someone you held in the hospital a chance.”
After being axed, Dayton said she was “done” auditioning for the team.
“I think she’s grown up enough to maybe redirect herself,” Finglass told Us. “I think all of that is healthy. She worked hard and she tried. We worked hard and tried to make it happen for her and it just didn’t. It comes down to if we choose one person over another, why are we saying no to the other?”
Finglass added, “She just never quite got there.”
DCC choreographer Judy Trammell called the decision to cut Dayton again “one of the hardest things in my career.”
“I would not have wanted Dayton to have had to go through another training camp and be cut again,” Trammell, 68, explained during season 3. “Letting her go at finals was probably the best thing for her. She’s just stressed over this so much and I hate that for her that we couldn’t make her dream come true. We couldn’t help her fulfill it.”
Dallas Cowboys cheerleader Reece Weaver wasted no time in making another major decision after announcing her surprising retirement from the iconic squad. “We also just moved to Alabama, so we’re really excited about that,” Weaver, 24, exclusively told Us Weekly about life with her husband, Will Allman. “I think right now it’s just trying to […]
Before her audition, Dayton told cameras that she felt “more confident this year.”
“I feel more myself, more grown up,” she said. “I don’t feel like I’m trying to cut and paste into a different mold. I’m just being me, and that’s making it a whole lot easier to get through this round. I’m so happy to be here and happy to get another chance.”
Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders is available to stream now.
