GIVING VOICE TO MENOPAUSE

WHO ARE WE

Vanessa, Sarah & Libby

We are a collective who have come together to make space for women to share their stories and experiences around perimenopause and menopause.

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We would like to acknowledge the The Dugdale Trust for Women & Girls for making the vision of Giving Voice to Menopause a reality.

We believe listening deeply to the experiences of women has the potential to redefine what it means to move through menstruation into menopause. 

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Vanessa Chapple has been creating and telling the stories of women and community through theatre, art and ritual for over 20 years. She is a theatre director and performing artist passionate about social and environmental justice and committed to the processes which value deep listening and mutual learning. She is coauthor and artistic director of 8 solo theatre works inspired by womens’ personal stories, has a long history with the Womens’ Circus and POW (Performing Older Women) as artistic director and project leader. Her work has been experienced at Arts Centre Melbourne, National Gallery of Victoria, and many arts festivals of Victoria. She is the president of advocacy group AWDA (Australian Women Directors’ Alliance) and on the board of Community Music Victoria. She is an experienced facilitator and  has recently trained as Warm Data and People Need People Online host with The International Bateson Institute. 

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Sarah Miller is a Teacher of the Four Seasons Journey and MoonSong (Menstrual Wellness) Workshop for the School of Shamanic Womancraft. She works with women in recreating mytho- poetic and embodied stories of their rites of passage, and teaches the fundamentals of menstrual wellness. In 2010 Sarah founded Embodiments Dance, a somatic movement and dance school for women to explore and enrich their relationships with their moving bodies and the body of the earth.   She has worked with  community organizations including TreeSisters, EarthSong, Global Water Dances and Save Westernport to create public rituals and dance to celebrate our inherent connection to nature. Sarah has presented stories to and for the community at many events, most recently at Seven Sisters Festival 2020, Mt Martha on Surgical Rites of Passage for Women, and on Women and the Sacred Drum for the Priestess Podcasts, 2020 (online). She gives regular talks and storytelling sessions including at schools, and community based organizations. Sarah  is an emerging playwright, storyteller and a ritual artist.

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Libby Chow has been working in media, journalism and video production for over 20 years.

After completing a bachelor of Creative Arts from Melbourne University.  She began her career at The Age (Fairfax) in 2000 as a pioneering video journalist for their national online news websites. She left her position of senior digital content producer to begin her own business in freelance media production. Her experience as a journalist, set her up to focus on community projects, arts and not for profit organisations. She has worked with independent artists, The Brotherhood of St Laurence, Cultivating Community, CERES Fair Food, Health Issues Centre, VACCHO, Family Safety Victoria and other like minded organisations. Videobee is her one woman video production unit. She works with all stages of the process; Pre production and planning of logistics, scripting, budget, production, shooting, lighting, sound and photography. Also post production, working in the Adobe CC suite, with a focus on Premiere Pro CC. Aside from her video production work, over the 2020 lockdown in Melbourne, she initiated a series of Zoom events on perimenopause, offering sessions with therapists and creating a space for women to share their experiences and concerns surrounding this profound time of change.