Embodied Ethics: Somatic Education for Moral Imagination

Professor Ilya Vidrin of the College of Arts, Media and Design will be launching his project, entitled “Embodied Ethics: Somatic Education for Moral Imagination”, in August 2026. The project was made possible through funding from Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative 2026 Capacity-Building Grant, supported by the Lilly Endowment.

Project Overview: Professor Ilya Vidrin is interested in how dance can be a vehicle or exploring and practicing relational ethics. His project draws on his previous research developing how Somatic Partnering, a movement technique designed to cultivate cooperative capacities between equals (including attentiveness, responsiveness, and mutual care). The research project will focus on curriculum development involving design researchers, to produce a facilitator guide enabling educators without specialized movement training to implement embodied ethics pedagogy across institutional contexts. The project is set to run from August 2026 to August 2027.

Project information

Wake Forest University’s Educating Character Initiative

The purpose of the Educating Character Initiative is “to strengthen the understanding, integration, and education of character at undergraduate institutions.”

Learn more about the Educating Character Initiative here

Fall Workshops

Fall workshops are set to run on Wednesday evenings from 6-8pm in Ryder Hall 372. We will have an information session on Wednesday September 16th for those interested — stay tuned for sign-up link.

Support

Support for this project comes from the Ethics Institute at Northeastern University.

Project Lead

Ilya Vidrin

Dr. Ilya Vidrin is a choreographer, dramaturg, and director of The Partnering Lab. Born into a refugee family, Ilya’s work engages with and investigates ethics of physical interaction, including the embodiment of care, trust, cultural competence, consent, and social responsibility. As an Assistant Professor of Creative Practice Research and Core Faculty at the Institute for Experimental Robotics, Ilya draws on concepts and methods in social epistemology, performance philosophy, ethics of care, dance studies, and cognitive psychology. Ilya has been featured as one of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch” (2022), and has been an artist-in-residence at Jacob’s Pillow (’18, ’19, ’23), National Choreographic Center, MIT Media Lab, Harvard ArtLab, L.A. Contemporary Dance Company, North Atlantic Ballet, Ballet Des Monies, Schwerin Ballet, the National Parks Service, The Walnut Hill School, Interlochen Arts Academy, Boston Center for the Arts, Le Laboratoire, Museum of Fine Arts (Boston), and the NewMuseum (NYC).