You might say Dreya Weber didn't really see the world until she saw it upside down. In the jungle gym behind her Los Angeles home, she hangs upside down, her feet locked in thick braids of aerial silks. She's stretching after a demonstration of the aerial artform that's sustained a banner career.
"I never could have imagined this path, ever. Ever," she said.
The lineage of Weber's work is adorned with international superstar after international superstar.
"P!NK, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Britney [Spears], Rihanna, Cher, Taylor Swift, Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry, Carrie Underwood," she said.
She's not even trying to brag. We just asked her who she's worked with over her four decade-plus career.
Weber is the reason P!NK is known for those elaborate high-flying numbers.
Like the one performed during her song, 'Glitter in The Air.'
"So I drew it for her and I presented the drawing to her in her kitchen and I was like, I have this idea: Three women, you – you're separate. They can spin one way, you can spin the other way. And then I want to get you wet at the end. And she was like, 'cool,'" Weber recalled. "This idea of the three women above her in this sort of controlled triptych where they're spinning, but they can always be symmetrical. And that she's independent, but they're above her like this sort of, you know, resonant from classical art. Little angels."
Now, Weber is leveraging her remarkable talent into a one-woman show, 'Hexen', a show that recounts her family history's proximity to allegations of witchcraft.
"The furthest back natural lineal ancestor was born in 1550 in the city of Trier in southern Germany. And Trier is the site of the largest witch hunt in European history," Weber said. "The predominant accusation against women accused witchcraft was weather-making. So, the bad weather was blamed on women."
'Hexen' is haunting tale of the misogynistic history that slaughtered tens of thousands of women and taught generations to come to shrink themselves.
"I was recently called a witch," Weber exclaimed. "I was recently literally accused of being a witch because I got a job, like I got a promotion for a great job."
Now, she hopes, her artwork will become a vehicle for women – for everyone – to reclaim their autonomy, their power; something she sees every time she teaches someone new to fly.
"Usually what happens the first time, and it's really precious because it generally only happens the first time, is when a person gets back on the ground and they settle themselves. There's like this... 'Wow, my body feels crazy,' like this – this open spine, this kind of tingling, the oxygen to the brain in a different way. It's amazing. It's amazing."
In a chaotic world, Dreya Weber wants to redefine what it means to be upside down.
"I one hundred percent believe that the worst times are the best opportunity times," Weber said, reflecting on the significance of her show's message. "Human beings are amazing. Human beings can endure and rise and create beauty and see beauty."
RELATED STORY | Is it better to sleep in instead of getting in a morning workout?
