'Dance War' is exhausting, thrilling for 2 Utahns

OREM — The two Utahns competing on ABC's "Dance War" surrendered their cell phones when they arrived on the set of the reality show in January.

For six weeks, Zack Wilson of Saratoga Springs and Mariel Sarangay of Sandy have been able to use their phones just twice a week for 10 minutes, and those rare calls are made on speaker phone and monitored by the show's handlers so family members can't share any information about how the public is reacting to the show.

Wilson, Sarangay and the other seven remaining contestants can't watch television without approval. Even their Web access is restricted.

"We're very sequestered," Wilson said during a recent short phone interview arranged by ABC public relations. "We're cut off from everything. They don't want us thinking about feedback. The goal is to create a great performance every Monday night."

The finale airs Monday, when results of a national vote will determine which team won. The champions will get a contract to go on tour as the opening act for a major performing artist and will be part of a new song-and-dance group.

Only one of the Utahns can win. Sarangay and Wilson, who a year ago was a member of Brigham Young University's Young Ambassadors song-and-dance troupe, are on opposite teams.

ABC also will use the "Dance War" finale to reveal the cast for the next season of "Dancing with the Stars."

"Dance War" is a spin-off of that major hit, featuring two of that show's judges as team leaders on "Dance War," Bruno Tonioli and Carrie Ann Inaba.

Tonioli selected Wilson as one of six members of Team Bruno. Inaba chose Sarangay to be among the original six on Team Carrie Ann.

Sarangay, 19, was known as Jessica Sarangay while she attended Sandy's Altera Elementary School, Crescent View Middle School and Alta High School. She moved to California in August to enroll at the Hollywood Pop Academy, but she left the school when she won a spot on "Dance War."

Since the show is a combination of "American Idol" and "Dancing With the Stars," contestants must both sing and dance, but Sarangay had no previous dance experience. Inaba said she picked her to give her team a strong song base.

Some fans of the show have criticized Sarangay because she went to California with money her grandmother had saved for her own cancer treatments.

"Some people see it as I've taken the money from my grandmother, but we understand the cancer is not going to leave her no matter what treatment she gets," Sarangay said. "Her cancer has come back a number of times, and this time it has spread to her bones and is terminal.

"She's tired of fighting it, and she told me that giving me the money was a way for her to help me to begin my life and career as hers comes to an end."