16 GILLESPIE / DE BEAUVOIR

 DA- Not the world. I'd do one in Japan. That's the place I want to go next,
 and Paris. I've been to the U.S. I've been to San Diego. I want to go to
 Miami I've been to New York several times, not to perform, just to go
 and relax. I feel more comfortable in Europe, Italy. I've stopped off in
 Switzerland for a short while. Europe is my playground. If you believe
 in reincarnation, I've been told that my roots are in Tolange, France.
 CG- What do you think you'll find there?
 DA- Heaven knows. I'm not interested in what I'm going to find. I just want
 to know why. I just want to go with my feeling here. I don't know. There
 must be something. I don't know if sometimes you have an emptiness,
 whether it be a quest to find God or a quest to find your soul mate or to
 find peace and solace. There's always an emptiness there that you're
 looking to fill and that could be part of it too.
 CG- You mentioned art. Do you draw as well?
 DA- I'm an artist.
 CG- What kind of work do you do?
 DA- I do still life. I do portraits. Abstract is not my thing because I believe
 anybody can do that. This is art that I am doing now with the dancing.
 I am a fashion designer. I design all of the clothes for the show. I'm a
 big tall girl. I do weddings, I do pageants. As long as you have a
 foundation and a basis to be an artist you can do anything. I used to do
 graphic art at one point when I was seventeen. I did graphics. I did
 animation. It was just a matter of getting somebody to say you have too
 much talent, use it.
 CG- Do you do the choreography for the show?
 DA- I do. We make it as tight as possible. Some of us sing. Some don't. But
 I try to get the girls [the other transgendered performers in Diva's
 show, Bianca and Holly] to rehearse. The big one, [Bianca] she's a
 dancer. She's a star, so you don't have to get her to do anything. She is
 a professional dancer so she is very nonchalant about rehearsing. But
 you need to rehearse. As a group of us there are three of us with totally
 different personalities. The two of them get on my nerves especially
 when we are traveling. Like I want to keep everybody in order 'cause
 they are like here, there, everywhere. "Laughter, laughter, laughter."
 It's a big party for them and so much noise. I have a vision. I know
 where I want to go with this group. This group can go so far. They have
 to decide if they want to go too. I'm not going to have anybody hanging
 on my coattails. I have a vision and I know I must reach it. I must. I've
 been through too much in this country. I have to prove to myself that I
 can do it.