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The School of Theatre and Dance is pleased to share that Assistant Professor of Dance, Ambre Emory-Maier, will serve as the Movement Director in collaboration with Kent State University's Wick Poetry Center and the University of Arizona in the creation and performance of "What We Learned While Alone: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic." 

¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ the Production

In March 2021, the Wick Poetry Center at Kent State University, Kent, Ohio, and the University of Arizona Poetry Center, Tucson, Arizona, launched the interactive website for the  project, inviting anyone to share experiences of the pandemic and vaccination through their own poetic reflection. Thousands of everyday people responded from India to Ireland, from Maine to Hawai’i. In the spring of 2022, an anthology of these poems, "," was published by The Kent State University Press.

This unique theatrical event weaves together poems and excerpts from the anthology, "Dear Vaccine," and combines spoken word with music, movement, and digital dialogue to create an innovative interactive experience that celebrates what we have learned from our loss, what we praise, and what we hope for the future.

This performance program uses poetry from the recently published book of poems by The Kent State University Press, "Dear Vaccine: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic." The theatrical adaption, scripted by David Hassler, director of the Wick Poetry Center, brought on many professionals to turn the collection into a living performance, combining spoken word, music, dialogue and movement. As the performance develops, the audience and the performers create a poem, continuing the conversation as we move forward as a global society. In the future these original community poems created at each performance will be accessible on the web for others to read.

"What We Learned While Alone: Global Voices Speak to the Pandemic" is meant to be a touring program, with hopes of taking the production overseas as well as throughout the United States. More information is to come regarding the touring schedule.

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¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ Ambre Emory-Maier

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Professor Ambre Emory-Maier joined Kent State University’s School of Theater and Dance in the fall of 2022. Previously, she served as Associate Director of BALLETMET 2 and the Director of Education, Equity, and Community Engagement for BalletMet in Columbus, Ohio. Professor Ambre Emory-Maier holds multiple certifications in Labanotation and will be able to stage notable works of choreography while also expanding community engagement to help the regional impact of Kent State's dance program. Professor Emory-Maier holds a B.A. in Communications from the State University of New York at Geneseo, an M.A. in Dance Research and Reconstruction from the City University of New York, and an M.F.A. in Choreography and Performance from The Ohio State University. She has also studied Performance and Restaging Techniques at the State University of New York at Brockport, the instruction of ballet based on the Leningrad Pedagogical System of Teaching at the School of the Hartford Ballet, and Labanotation at the Dance Notation Bureau.