WHO AM I?
Professionally, I am a choreographer, dancer, and movement educator of over 25 years, with a focus on prenatal and postpartum health for the last 8 years. I am originally from Philadelphia, where I was the director of ready Set GO, performing locally and internationally, and teaching various forms of fitness and Somatics. Teaching has always been a large part of my life and career, with students that ranged in age from toddlers to older adults, beginners to advanced, and professional dancers. I love inspiring and guiding my students to find ways to access their joy through a more self-aware relationship with their bodies and a more fine-tuned mind-body connection. I earned a degree in Dance and Choreography from the University of the Arts, have studied with master teachers of Anatomy/Kinesiology and movement practices in various forms from all over the world, and completed a 350-hour, intensive yoga teacher training during my first pregnancy. I also completed additional advanced pre and postnatal yoga and movement teacher training through Pranakriya Yoga School of Healing Arts, and Postpartum Doula, Childbirth Educator and Breastfeeding educator training through Birth Arts International.
I am currently the owner of Ready Set Grow, a safe, inclusive and supportive environment for pregnant people, postpartum people, parents, and kids to gain strength, flexibility, and control of their physical health.
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS | WILDWOOD BIRTH COLLECTIVE
About Vera
My soul’s work is that of a weaver of stories...
I began my life’s work as a documentarian over a decade ago, with an old handheld recorder, asking friends and strangers if I could record them. I am fascinated by voices and stories and the spaces in between. My blog became a vlog as I documented the landscape of my visual experience, both stunning and mundane, believing them to be equally important.
When I witnessed (and filmed) my first birth several years ago, my love for storytelling reached new heights. What could be more spectacular than capturing the sensational, albeit at times complicated, process of a new human life joining us in this world? Truly, nothing. I am passionate to my core doing this work, and count myself as one of the lucky ones that I found what I love, and I get to do it.
A few other things about me:
Live in NE Portland with my partner
Studied philosophy and applied ethics in university
Have been to Burning Man - six times
Was without an address for five years, traveling the world
About Elizabeth
When my dad gave me my first point-and-shoot film camera for my 8th grade graduation, a door opened that allowed me to see, experience, and interpret the world in inspiring new ways. It helped fuel my fascination with the stories that make us human -- the complicated, difficult, redemptive, staggeringly beautiful experiences that make up and shape our lives, and with how those stories connect us. It gave me a literal lens through which to explore humanity: what motivates us, fills us up, what breaks us, and what lifts us up again. My photography has connected me to the importance of community, and a conviction that strong communities nurture resilience in the face of struggle. With these interests at heart, my work as a photographer is documentary in nature, seeking to explore and capture the stories of our lives as they are -- even if it’s messy, and even when we’re working on a half-posed portrait session. I look for connection, longing, laughter, and the small details: whatever is most real for you that day, or in a fleeting moment. I want to learn and help you tell your story.
I think all pregnant bodies are beautiful, and that growing a human is one of the most incredible things a person can do in their life. I believe in celebrating and remembering the transformative time before you meet your baby and find out who they are. I know that labor and birth are intense, sacred, and powerful, and that few times in our lives are more life-changing and worthy of being remembered.
I’m also:
An insatiable world-wanderer
A lover of good books
Obsessed with podcasts (birth, politics, TRUE CRIME)
A 4th generation Oregonian
Planning a wedding in a pandemic
LEARN MORE ABOUT THE WILDWOOD BIRTH COLLECTIVE