bhundt@observer-reporter.com

When she was in high school, Amanda Billings never participated in any of her school's musicals.

"In high school, I was a skater, and also really focused on (my studies)," the 21-year-old native of Hannah, Alberta, Canada said. "I was in some honors classes, and tried to have a bit of a social life, so it really didn't leave any time for musicals.

Billings is getting her chance now, and then some. She's part of the cast of "Disney's High School Musical: The Ice Tour," which will be at Mellon Arena for seven performances starting today and continuing through Sunday.

This is the latest spin-off of "High School Musical," the phenomenon that's spawned two made-for-TV movies, a concert tour, novels, a video game, best-selling soundtrack albums and a stage musical. Billings plays Gabriella Montez, the shy math and science whiz who ends up trying out for her school's big show.

The ice show started in August in Lakeland, Fla., and has two versions criss-crossing North America and an international version that, most recently, was in Dublin, Ireland.

Billings has been a skater since the age of 4, and is a two-time world competitor. She participated in the Canadian National Figure Skating Championship and was in the "Celebration on Ice" tour along with Kurt Browning, Elvis Stojko and Jennifer Robinson.

She will be with "Disney's High School Musical: The Ice Tour" through the summer, and is hoping to be on a proposed West Coast tour next year. "That way, more of my family can come see me in the show, I can visit home a little more, and I also love the weather on the West Coast," she said.

Billings talked about the tour from a stop in Boston two weeks ago:

Q. How familiar were you with "High School Musical" before you started on the tour?

A. I had seen the movie once. And I wasn't too familiar with it. But "Disney On Ice" announced they were going to do it. And I thought it would be really, really cool to do ...

Q.How did you first get into skating?

A.Actually, my baby-sitter. Her kids were taking lessons, and I kind of tagged along and started to love it. And then my mom and dad were able to keep me in it, progressing through the ranks and stuff.

Q.Had anyone else in your family ever been involved in skating?

A.No, this was completely new to us.

Q.There's a whole hockey culture in Canada ...

A.It's definitely very popular. I was from a small town and there wasn't a whole lot of selection for sports, so hockey was huge and outdoor skating was always popular in the winter. We had an arena that offered skating lessons. A lot of kids tried it, and the ones who liked it caught onto it fast and continued with it.

Q.Are you going to try to get into the 2010 Winter Olympics?

A.No, I really enjoy professional skating. I'm enjoying performing almost every day, and sometimes even a couple of times a day. That's really what I loved about the sport the most of all. And I feel like this is a more rewarding experience than training and training for two weeks of your life at the Olympics. So I kind of found my passion for the sport.

Q.With "The Ice Tour," the first "High School Musical" is in the first half, and the second movie is in the second half?

A.Yeah, and we're the first group to do "High School Musical" in a different setting than the movie. There were no stage shows, there were no live performances other than us.

Q.I've heard where some audience members know all the songs and that kind of thing.

A.Yeah, they're clapping and they're up dancing. Some of them know the dance moves. We worked with the original choreographer, Chucky Klapow, and they really kept the ice show true to the movies.

Q.Sometimes you have to do more than one show a day?

A.Sometimes we have to do up to three.

Q.Is that pretty exhausting?

A.Definitely, and the main characters are on the ice a lot, and they try to incorporate some difficult skating moves in the show. There are about eight jumps and four different spins, and other different moves.

Q.Have you taken a tumble in any of the shows?

A.We've done almost 200 shows, so you have to be focused the whole time ... I've never taken a serious one.

Q.But you have to do get up and smile and act like it never happened...

A.Exactly. That's the whole thing about being a true professional, if you can make everyone believe it wasn't a mistake.

Q.And you can't get into a situation that some stage actors get into, like in a musical, where they're singing a song, but they're thinking, "Is that the guy I went to high school with in the fourth row?" or "What's for dinner after the show?"

A.And that's when you'd have a tumble, so you have to get your mind right back to the show.

Q.Anything about the whole experience that's been surprising for you?

A.It's been amazing, the audience response. I expected it to be good, but there are more people watching the show than when I competed, even at (the Canadian National Figure Skating Championship)...I can't believe how big a phenomenon this show is.

Q.Do you think doing a show like this is as stressful as the competitive events? Or more so? How would you rank it?

A.It's definitely less stressful for me, because I do 10 or 11 shows a week, but in some ways it's harder because I have to be on top of my game all the time. At competitions, there's an off-season, but with this tour, it's over a year in length. So I haven't had the chance to rest my body a whole lot, or take a break and just relax. So that's been the hard part. The challenge for me is to stay in the game for this long.

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