Lesbian Life: What is your background? Is it as a dance or a gymnast?

Dreyer Weber: I started out when I was a teenager, I was kind of on scholarship with a ballet company for a couple of years. I did gymnastics first, but not well. I did track and field and I was recruited with a friend of mine who was this sprinter to the national hurdling team. And she and I trained at the Olympic training center in Mexico City for two years and I did pentathlon.

In the Olympics?

No, no, I was training at the Olympic training center in Mexico City, but I competed nationally for Mexico on the national hurdling team.

I was ranked, like, fifth or sixth in Mexico. I was pretty good. I was too small to be, like, really good.
So, anyway, I did that and then when I went back to the States and was in college, I started gymnastics again, but with the dance and track training, you know, my legs had gotten so strong and the dance training had given me a better aesthetic. So, I - - I became really good and then I was All-American when I was a gymnast from Hunter College.

And then, right after that, I discovered flying trapeze and aerial acts. So, it was like a big bolt of lightening, world opener, because gymnastics is really hard on the body and I'd been really beat up. My ankles were shot. My shoulders were bad.

And are you still doing the aerial stuff? You’re not just training others?

No. I'm in a show right now in San Francisco.

Okay, so, this career path of yours, and I'm sure when you were a little kid, this wasn't what you envisioned for yourself. What did you want to be when you were a kid?

When I was 10, I verbalized clearly that I wanted to be an actor, to my mom.

And then, as I - - as things happened, I realized that there were other outlets that expressed the same spirit, that my inspiration to be an actor, a performer came from. I kind of went through a crisis in my late twenties about just being angry at the industry, like why haven't I gotten further acting?
It was really important, because I was challenged to redefine why I even cared about it in the first place.

I came to realize what I loved about performing, which is the common, human experience of storytelling and how universal it is and how you could do a Euripides play and still be like, “You're kidding me? That what was written then and I could apply it to what I'm experiencing today?” Or Shakespeare, where you're like, oh, no, you did not just say that, because that's what I would say right now.

So, that - - that's really the seeds of it. And at the very best, something like “Glitter in the Air” with Pink is a small expression of that. It's like this beautiful, small, poetic moment of like, this simple human feeling of like, have you ever felt this? Have you ever felt like sadness and love and loss and yet felt it's okay; there's grace somewhere in the world.

You know, that's it. I'm lucky. I pinch and poke myself often about that I have at least even an opportunity to try to think about these things, create in this realm.

Okay, one last question. As I was researching you online, of course, I kept getting these references to P90X. You make workout videos?

I do. It's a home workout program. It's 12 videos. I'm in three of them. I'm sort of the female body of them in all of the photographs and everything.
And because I'm in more of the workouts than any other women, I kind of become friends with people. It’s kind of an intimate thing. They work out with you. It's a series of home workouts that you need very little equipment for. It's like a home boot camp. It's a 90-day targeted program, where you plug yourself in. It's very straightforward. And it has an extraordinary effect on people.

[Recently at] the Oakland airport, a woman walked alongside me for a bit and said, “Dreya?” I didn't know her. She said, I'm sorry to bother you, but I've worked out with you, so I feel like I know you…

This woman stopped me, said that her husband had done it, because he had been told by his doctor that if he didn't lose 30 pounds, he was in danger of heart disease. And then, she said when she was four and a half months pregnant, she had been mugged and had actually delivered a child unconscious, in kind of a semi-coma state and then used P90X to rehabilitate and that she'd been told she wouldn't be able to walk again. As she was telling me this story, she was kind of apologizing to me. She said I just feel like I have to share this with you, because it was so important. She was on the verge of tears and she said, “So I have to express to you how important it is to me.” That's an extreme, but it's nice to be a part of something that is fundamentally just good for people, like, connecting with their bodies in whatever way it is for them.

It's a very odd thing, but it's a lovely thing. It's not like making movies or it's not like choreographing or performing on that level. But, I'm happy. If I'm a part of something that encourages people or people look at me as an inspiration to get stronger and healthier, so their lives can feel a little more invigorated or energetic, then great. I'm all for it.

And so, you're in your forties, how long can you keep up doing this kind of thing?

I don't know. You know, I think the answer to that really is as long as my barometer's not crashed. But, I think that it would be as long as I'm inspired to be.