Dancing's Cheryl Sidelined by Side Pain

Wed., Dec. 19, 2007 5:21 PM PST by Natalie Finn

The show couldn't go on for Cheryl Burke.

The two-time Dancing with the Stars champion was forced to miss the opening night of the third DWTS tour Tuesday in Seattle after she experienced hobbling pain that necessitated a trip to the hospital, a rep for the ballroom star confirmed to E! News.

"Last night, during run-through, I was cramping and in pain," Burke told tvguide.com, which first learned of what tour choreographer Louis van Amstel is calling a "disaster" for the production. "I couldn't even stand up straight."

The 23-year-old Latin dance specialist was informed that she could be suffering from appendicitis and, instead of taking the stage tonight in Sacramento, Burke is flying home to San Francisco to seek a second opinion.

"I hope it doesn't require surgery," the wishful-thinking Burke said. If she's forced to go under the knife, she will be forced to take a much more significant amount of time off from the two-month, 37-city tour.

Her brief absence already has van Amstel in a dither.

"It's a disaster," the DWTS pro, who has already had to retool his routines multiple times to accommodate this year's lineup of performers, told TV Guide's site. "Cheryl can't be gone for more than a week. I won't let her!"

While Burke's absence turned the newly revamped show at Key Arena into more of a dress rehearsal than a polished product, Karina Smirnoff, who already appears in a half-dozen numbers, was luckily on hand to dance with Burke's partner, season two-winner Drew Lachey.

"We had a couple of moments when we ran onto the floor at the wrong time, in the wrong place, in the wrong direction," Smirnoff, who finished one dance clutching at her undone halter top, said Wednesday. "But that won't happen tonight."

According to critics' initial impressions of the show performed in front of 6,000 toe-tapping fans on Tuesday, stars Lachey, Sabrina Bryan and Joey Lawrence took the bad news about Burke in stride and maintained their momentum throughout the evening. Wayne Newton, who is recovering from a virus in his heart, sang but didn't dance.

All in all, the show, just like the TV program it's based on, feted the art of dance in its "wonderfully cheesy and exclamation-point-loaded way," as expressed by Seattle Times arts writer Moira Macdonald. (And, yes, Bryan totally rocked.)

Coincidentally, just as the fifth season of DWTS hosted more than its fair share of drama for its competing celebrities, the third installment of the tour is already making mincemeat out of the professionals.

Bryan danced with Derek Hough, who just finished his first DWTS season, because her partner from the show (and new boyfriend from life), Mark Ballas Jr., is sidelined while recovering from a dislocated right arm.

The tour wraps up Feb. 10 in Philadelphia.