Ilya Vidrin
Visiting Artist
2020

Ilya Vidrin’s ArtLab residency involves the development of a multimedia toolkit for partnering, including the design of wearable technology for use in interactive performance.

Ilya brought together a team of collaborators, including dancer and expressive therapies specialist Jessi Stegall, neuropsychologist Dr. Bonnie Wong, creative technologist Peter Martel, information designer Steven Braun, Argentinian dancer and dramaturg Valeria Solomonoff, and violinist Daniel Kurganov.

Ilya Vidrin is a multi-disciplinary artist, educator, and researcher at the intersection of music, dance, and interactive media. Born into a refugee family, Ilya’s work interrogates the complex ethics of human interaction, including the practice of empathy, cultural competence, and social responsibility. Alongside his artistic practice, Ilya pursued undergraduate studies in Cognitive Neuroscience and Rhetorical Theory at Northeastern University and went on to graduate school at Harvard University and the Centre for Dance Research in the United Kingdom. His doctoral work focused on the underlying psychology and philosophy of partnering. In addition to teaching at the Harvard Dance Center, Ilya directs the Partnering Lab, an applied research initiative investigating the roots of physical interaction in clinical care, education, and the visual and performing arts.

The performance/workshop Attunement: or that which cannot be measured and the project “tethered“, is associated with this residency.