Alfonso Ribeiro Talks Life After 'DWTS': Tour, Cooking & More

By
ETONLINE

Reigning Dancing with the Stars champ Alfonso Ribeiro is gearing up to headline the Dancing with the Stars: Live! Tour, launching Dec. 27, and he talked to ET about the tour and his future plans.

"I didn't want it to end, you know?" Alfonso told ET about his time on Dancing. "I just wanted to still be a part of it."

PHOTOS: The Cast of DWTS Season 19

Alfonso will get his wish on the 39-city tour, which starts at Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino in Niagara Falls, N.Y. and ends at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live in Los Angeles, Calif. Although the 43-year-old actor was plagued by injuries during his DWTS run, but he pushed through them to win the mirror ball trophy and he's not about to let the pain slow him down now.

"My body is better. I certainly won't say that my body is 100 percent back to normal. It's a work in progress," Alfonso said. "The reality is that for my body to be able to heal, I probably needed six weeks and I had two."

While on the road, Alfonso will travel in style with all the comforts of home, including his family.

"I've got my own bus and will get to wake up with my wife [Angela Unkrich] and son [Alfonso Lincoln Ribeiro, Jr.] every morning, so it's going to be wonderful," he said.

One thing that won't be traveling with him is the coveted mirror ball trophy.

NEWS: Alfonso Dances Through the Pain in DWTS Stunning Semi Finals

"I've got this little mantle right in the foyer of the house that it's sitting on right now," Alfonso said. "There's a light shining down on it, so the actual sparkles from the mirror are all over the place. It's pretty cool."

As far as his future plans, Alfonso has already landed his own show on Cooking Channel called Unwrapped 2.0. On the show, debuting Feb. 2, Alfonso gives his take on classic American treats.

Alfonso could be seen in other upcoming projects as well, but he says that a reunion for The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air cast is not a possibility.

"The thing about it is when James Avery passed, I believe that the core of the show went with him," he explained to ET. "He was that rock. There's really no reason to go back. I think in life, and this is very true, if you're not moving forward, you're moving backwards. Well, boy would that be moving backwards, right? That's going way back! Even doing the Carlton dance on [DWTS] was about paying homage to the love that people feel for that show and that character and that dance, but that was me kind of saying bye."

Related Gallery