Dance the Night Away

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Hmm, Vegas, Omaha? Vegas, Omaha?”

Sabrina Bryan jokingly ponders the choice of which city offers a wilder New Year’s Eve. The “Dancing with the Stars” Tour will have the big night off. She’s happy the tour managers opted to let the cast stay in Las Vegas after playing the Orleans Arena on Monday, then fly to Nebraska New Year’s Day.

Bryan enjoys Las Vegas so much she’s basing her business here and buying property. It’s just one of the dramatic developments that came from ABC’s hit dance competition, which gave a second tier of stardom to one of Disney’s Cheetah Girls.

“I went into ‘Dancing with the Stars’ hoping to get the trophy, but at the same time had no idea I’d come out with the friendships I did (or) realize how amazing the experience would be,” she says.

Bryan admits the ABC contest, and even its aftermath, “does feel definitely like a movie script.”

Picture it on the Disney Channel: The 23-year-old’s mother takes her to the live semifinals of last season’s competition. She is taken by “the glitz and the glamour” of the ballroom world and agrees to compete the next fall.

Disney pop tours have plenty of their own choreography, but assuming the Cheetah Girls gave her a competitive edge in ballroom competition would be “like saying, ‘Oh you’re a swimmer so you automatically know how to play water polo,’ ” she says.

Nonetheless, as our screenplay goes, Bryan and dance partner Mark Ballas become crowd favorites. But everyone from the judges to the live audience alike are astonished when they are voted off the show in its sixth week.

However, no mere telephone campaign can dampen the romantic sparks between the two. They look forward to the tour, “especially since Mark and I didn’t get a chance to do as much performing together as we had hoped,” Bryan notes.

But the couple dance on the show once more, on the season finale, where Ballas dislocates his left shoulder. On Dec. 5, he undergoes arthroscopic surgery.

Will the saga have a happy ending?

At this writing, Ballas was sitting in on rehearsals and hoping to jump back in before the tour ends. According to his personal Web site, he sees the doctor again Jan. 3. Bryan forges on, partnered with Derek Hough before she flies to India later in January to film Disney’s third “Cheetah Girls” movie, continuing the tweener hit that paved the way for “Hannah Montana.”

No matter how it all comes out, Las Vegas will be seeing more of Bryan. “It just seemed that Vegas was the best place to kind of settle the corporation,” she says, not offering much more in the way of details of what a Sabrina Bryan corporation does.

“Plus, being young and loving the nightlife in Vegas is nice, too,” she says. Owning a residence here will make it “nice to have a place to stay and not worry about booking a hotel.”

She credits a certain high-profile Las Vegan and fellow “Dancing” competitor for talking up the city. “Meeting Wayne Newton and talking to him about business was another inspiration to step forward and really make that decision,” she says.

“He has become somebody I trust as a mentor and just grown to love. I feel so blessed to have him in my life.” Newton has been singing and hosting the tour’s early stops; a heart condition sidelined him from the dance floor.

“He just brings a whole other caliber of experience and professionalism that is something to look up to for all of us,” Bryan says.

Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or (702) 383-0288.