WOM: You have received a lot of attention for your work with Bill T.Jones, in which you were selected as a dancer over 400 other women. How has the media attention, which has landed you some high praise from many a media source, affected the way you are perceived by others, both as a performer and as a person? Alexandra: It is, of course, impossible to judge how you are perceived by others. One can choose to make it a life's work to figure out what others are thinking but it seems to be my life's work to try and let that idea go. The only thing I know for certain about what has changed in the way I am perceived is the fact THAT I am perceived. In other words, I don't know that there are new opinions about me, but I only know that there are more opinions and that once someone has a certain amount of celebrity, the floodgates of commentary and criticism seem to open. Once I allowed myself to be in the full eye of the public, I had to surrender the idea that people wouldn't talk about my body in whatever terms they chose. Truthfully though, although it may not be on such a large scale, or in the public eye, no one can control what people think about you or say about you and, frightening as it may be, I think it is important to try and let go of that desire for control. WOM: How would you like to be perceived by your peers and the public? Alexandra: Oh, there's the dangerous territory for me again. I would like most of all to be unconcerned with what my peers and the public think of me. I would like most of all to be only concerned with how I feel about myself from the inside and that is a difficult task for me.

Alexandra: I would like to feel myself to be truly at ease, to be graceful even in the face of intense scrutiny, to feel complete freedom of action, of thought, of movement, to be unencumbered by the burdens of insecurity. Obviously, I am not there. If I were, perhaps I wouldn't need to make art. Unfortunately, I do care what people think of me, but I think saying aloud how I would like to be perceived puts me in a third person position rather than a feeling position so I will leave my answer at that. WOM: What gave you the confidence and inspiration to move forward in your career despite the labels some people placed on you concerning your size and appearance? Alexandra: Sometimes it was the labels themselves that gave me the impetus to go forward. I am a very stubborn person and having someone tell me I can't do something or can't succeed makes me want to show them otherwise. I wouldn't say that I had the confidence to succeed, but the anger to succeed. As for the inspiration, anyone who has found something they absolutely love can attest to the fact that there is no "choice" to do or not to do it. There is the absolution of fate or destiny drawing you towards what you love and the thing itself is not outside or beyond you, but like an organ or appendage. I could no less have stopped dancing than I could have let go of a leg or a lung. It was not a particularly logical choice, but nor was it really brave, since it didn't seem like an option to do other than I did in becoming a dancer.