Alfonso Ribeiro has been making moves in entertainment since he was a tap-dancing kid on Broadway, but he really looked forward to working with the professionals on Dancing With the Stars. He finally got his wish last year, not only appearing in the most recent season but taking home that coveted mirror ball trophy—despite numerous injuries. The former Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star performs with pro partner Witney Carson at The Venetian on Feb. 7 as part of the Dancing with the Stars: Live! tour, and as he explained to Las Vegas Magazine’s Matt Kelemen, he couldn’t be happier about this phase in his career.

I didn’t realize how relentless this tour was until I saw the schedule. Are you ready?

Yeah, this has been quite remarkable. It’s pretty special when you think about the fact that it’s a 51-day tour, 49 shows, 40 cities, just constantly moving from one to the next. But the fact that it’s sold out across the board is quite special. We feel wonderful about that, and to be part of that, to me, is pretty awesome. As you might know I’ve been a fan of the show from the very beginning, so to be part of this and to have this opportunity to go on the road with them, and to continue dancing with my partner, Witney Carson, and to be there with everyone else, people I’ve become friends with, it’s pretty cool. I’m really happy.

Did you know the tour might be a possibility from the beginning of your participation in the show?

We did talk about it maybe three or four weeks into the show. We started talking about the fact the tour was going to exist, and they were interested in me coming out and being part of the tour back then. I certainly knew about it, and we were in discussion. It was cool to know that was out there, and we’re excited to finally do the deal and make it work.

When did you find out? When did you solidify it? The pacing of the show seems relentless as well, and then to extend that must have been pretty challenging.

Well, I always say, “It’s easier on paper than it is in real life.” Once we discussed it and I approved the idea of doing it and your business people take care of that, it was off and running. I knew that I was going to be a part of this well before the TV show ended, but we made sure there was enough of a break there to let the body heal up. And we discussed, obviously, the parameters of what this show would be for me so that I wouldn’t continue to be injuring myself. It’s a very different energy when you’re dancing 100 percent live to 15 million, 16 million people. That’s one thing. When you’re doing it for a couple of thousand people in the audience, you can knock it down to 80 percent and it’s still going to look really damn good, and not hurt yourself. So that’s really what we’re doing, is we’re giving them the best that we can give without continuing to hurt myself.

You really took a beating during the season. How are you doing physically right now?

Well, shoot, I hurt my toe, I hurt my knee, I hurt my groin, I hurt my back. It was just a slew of injuries, but as of now the two injuries I have to be very mindful of are simply my groin and my back. I wear some braces every night for the show, and they’ve got a physical therapist on the road with us to help myself, plus all the other dancers that are constantly dealing with their own injuries. They’ve taken good care of us.

Was the groin injury from Witney’s knee [in rehearsal]?

(Laughs) No. Witney’s knee, that wasn’t groin. That was different. The groin injury I hurt actually in Week Four when I was doing The Carlton dance. It wasn’t the actual Carlton dance that hurt it, but that was the week that I injured my groin.

I keep seeing references to how you’ve been wanting to be on the show for its duration for the last 10 years. What took so long? It seems like you should have been on a lot earlier.

You would think that, but I have no answer for you. That’s still the looming question: “What took so long? What did it take so long for them to allow me on the show?” I don’t know, but we finally got there.

When you used to watch did you used to imagine choreography you’d do? Was it a given if you were ever on DWTS that The Carlton would be part of the show?

No, I certainly thought about the choreography, simply because I don’t have any part of the choreography. Your pro partner does all of that, so I never envisioned what my dancing would be like. All I wanted to do is be on the show and learn. I’m not a dancer. I’m certainly in no way a dancer, even though I might have had The Carlton dance and people have seen me dance. Being a trained dancer is very different from being able to dance. They’re a very different thing. I wanted to be on Dancing with the Stars so I could do the dances that they do. I wanted to be able to learn how to do ballroom-style dances and the Latin dances. That was the purpose of wanting to be on the show. But the producers and everyone kept saying, “We really want you to do it.” I figured why not give it to America and let them enjoy it one last time, and hopefully they would. They really seemed to enjoy it on the show, so it was really kind of a gift to America, I should say.

Your chemistry with Witney Carson seems to go deeper than dancing. It’s very apparent. Did you feel creatively connected to her right away? Do you feel lucky that she became your partner?

I feel very lucky that I got Witney as my partner. I feel like it was the perfect scenario for me at this point in my life. Witney is like my little sister now, and she will always be that for me. I feel like she views me as her big brother, and it’s really just taking care of her and always looking out for her. Our chemistry was just natural. It’s just an easy relationship. It didn’t require a lot of effort, and that was really key. That was, I think, really important for how we were going to work together, and we were able to do that, which is great.

What was the first experience rehearsing together like?

Well, the first day that we met we worked on a couple of different styles, because she wanted to see what I could do and what I couldn’t do. We started out with cha-cha stuff. We kind of worked with that dance first, and then we started going into the jive once we knew we were going to be doing the jive the first week. But we worked on a few different styles. She wanted to see physically what I could do, my limitations, those kinds of things. We kind of talked through a lot of it. She’d show a move, see what I could do. The stuff I was able to do, I showed her, and the stuff I couldn’t, I was like, “There’s no chance I’m doing that!” (laughs)

What’s the pressure like rehearsing for the show? It looks all-encompassing.

I would say the pressure is really what you make of it. You can either have a pressure-filled time on the show, or you can not deal with the pressure. For me, I don’t really get ahead of myself. I kind of just be in the moment and continue to learn, and every day working hard to get there. I’ve really just never felt a lot of pressure. It was just fun, and that’s one of the conversations Witney and I had at the very beginning: “This is supposed to be fun, and we’re going to make sure it’s fun every day. If it starts to get tense we’re going to switch it up, because there’s no reason to be tense. We’re so fortunate to get to have the opportunity to do what we love to do, let’s just love it. Let’s just enjoy it.” And that’s what we did.

Did you bring numbers directly from the show into the tour?

I don’t want to give the dances away that we’re doing, because we want people to come out and come see it, but we certainly gave the audience three of the dances that were my favorite dances to do, or at least crowd favorites. We did that, and then obviously I’m hosting. Most of my role on the show is to host and keep the show moving, give the dancers some time in between the dances to get ready for the next one. Really kind of giving a journey through the show is what I’m doing.

I’m gathering you have a renewed appreciation for your signature dance now?

I wouldn’t say this gave me any different appreciation. I certainly felt all of that well before Dancing with the Stars came around. The dance itself is one that will always have a positive and a negative for me. I certainly know how much people love it and enjoy it, and I certainly appreciate that in all of its different varieties. At the same time, it will always be somewhat of a curse, because it can get annoying for people to ask you to dance for them in the middle of the street. No matter whatever happens with the dance, that will always be annoying. (laughs)

I gather when Dave Chappelle started having problems with hearing “I’m Rick James, bitch,” you have a lot of sympathy for him.

Absolutely. I understand what he went through.

One final question: Which was more difficult, living in the jungle for [U.K. reality show] I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here! or Dancing with the Stars?

I would have to say they’re very different. One was mental, the other was physical. There was no physical doing I’m a Celebrity. It was just mental, whereas Dancing with the Stars was just physical and not mental. So they were equally difficult but in very different ways. If I had to do it all over again, I would do Dancing with the Stars over I’m a Celebrity.

The Venetian, 8 p.m. Feb. 7, starting at $55 plus tax and fee. 800.745.3000 Ticketmaster