Season 2 - Ep 4 Jessi Stegall and Ilya Vidrin on Partnering

Works in Progress

In this final episode of season two of Works in Progress, movement-based researchers Ilya Vidrin and Jessi Stegall join ArtLab Director Bree Edwards to discuss their dance-based collaborations at the ArtLab. Both are dancers and educators with graduate degrees from Harvard specializing in neuroscience and ethics. Ilya and Jessi make the invisible visible through their studies of the ethics of physical interaction.
During their residency at ArtLab, Ilya and Jessi utilized movement and wearable technologies as the investigative medium for their shared project, The Partnering Lab. As a platform for collaborative movement research, The Partnering Lab explores embodied ethics in social interactions. Ilya and Jessi navigate the moral space between bodies, collectively cultivating virtues like trust, care, and empathy.
Join us for this in-studio conversation with Ilya and Jessi about moving together and apart while negotiating ethical balances through collaboration.
Jessi Stegall is a choreographer and dance-theatre artist based in Chicago, IL. She has been an artist-in-residence at Boston Center for the Arts, Harvard ArtLab, Rhode Island Women’s Choreography Project, New Dances Chicago, National Parks Service, Hot Crowd Dance Company, Little Fire Dance Collective, and was recently featured as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” (2022). Jessi holds an M.S. in Ethics from Harvard University with a focus in Narrative Ethics, a B.S. in Expressive Art Therapy from Lesley University, and is an alumna of Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.
Dr. Ilya Vidrin is a choreographer, dramaturg, and director of The Partnering Lab. Born into a refugee family from Russia, Ilya’s work engages with and investigates ethics of physical interaction, including the embodiment of care, trust, cultural competence, consent, and social responsibility. Ilya is an Assistant Professor of Creative Practice Research and Core Faculty at Northeastern University. Ilya is also an alum of Northeastern, where he pursued undergraduate studies in Cognitive Psychology, Neuroscience, and Rhetorical Theory. He ​holds a Master’s Degree in Human Development and Psychology ​from​ Harvard University, and a doctorate in Performing Arts ​from the Centre for Dance Research at​ Coventry University (United Kingdom)
Ilya’s ArtLab page: https://artlab.harvard.edu/directory/ilya-vidrin/
Ilya’s Website: https://www.ilyavidrin.com/
Ilya’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ilya.vidrin/
Jessi’s Website: https://www.jessistegall.com/
Jessi’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fraulein_stegall/
Works in Progress is recorded and produced in ArtLab’s Mead Production Lab, which is located on the traditional territory of the Massachusetts people, the original inhabitants of what is now known as Boston and Cambridge. Season 2 is hosted by Bree Edwards, produced by Kat Nakaji, researched by Sadie Trichler, designed by Sonia Sobrino Ralston, and edited by Luke Damrosch. The Healing Project concert was recorded by Harvard Media Production C

Thanks for joining us for Works in Progress. We hope these conversations give you a glimpse into the creativity, collaboration, and experimentation happening at ArtLab. To learn more, visit artlab.harvard.edu.

The podcast is recorded in the Mead Production Lab at the ArtLab in Boston, Massachusetts.

Hosted by Bree Edwards
Audio by Luke Damroch
Production by Kat Nakaji
Research by Sadie Trichler & Ria Cuéllar-Koh

Design by James Blue & Sonia Ralston