The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders: Sideline Cheerleading and Dance

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (DCC), otherwise known as “America’s Sweethearts,” have recently surfaced due to their Netflix Documentary which, in my opinion, was very informative. This documentary details the behind-the-scenes of the DCC, from making the team to performing in holiday shows, and it provides a lot of insights into the reality of being on the team. 

I enjoyed the documentary (and I would highly recommend it), but is DCC a cheer team? Short answer: no. In this article, I’ll be going over what constitutes a sideline cheer team, and why DCC isn’t one.

First and foremost, they are a dance team, and I have no issues with them calling themselves cheerleaders, but I’ve noticed that this has altered the way some people view cheerleading.

The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are all trained dancers, which you may know if you’ve seen the documentary, and their style of dance doesn’t fall under just one category. It’s a mix of multiple genres, and in my opinion, it most closely resembles a blend of hip-hop and jazz, though it incorporates elements of other styles, too. 

“Well, cheer and dance are close enough, right?” Not really. Though they are on the sidelines supporting the Cowboys, that’s not what makes a cheerleading team. 

There are two main types of cheerleading (among a few others): sideline cheer and all-star cheer (also known as club cheer). I have another article detailing the differences between these two, but to put it simply, all-star teams focus on competitions, while sideline teams cheer on their teams during games.

Many people confuse DCC with a sideline cheer team, since they hold poms and dance on the sidelines of football games, giving them some resemblance to traditional cheerleaders. However, in order to be a sideline cheer team, you need to, well, say cheers. You should ideally do jumps, stunting, tumbling, and other typical cheerleading elements, too, but saying cheers is essential.

Sideline dance teams, however, do dances instead of cheers on the sidelines (these teams are common within the NFL). They also don't participate in the typical cheerleading skills I mentioned previously.

“But they’re called cheerleaders!” I hear this a lot. This documentary is the most mainstream “cheerleading” documentary at the moment, but again, DCC most closely resembles a sideline dance team, despite the fact that they carry poms.

I hope this was informative, and that it helped you to better understand the status of DCC!