Book: There Might Be Others
By Rebecca Lazier and Dan Trueman
Created by ELÆ, published by the Operating System Press, 2016
This book is a collection of propositions.
It contains the dance and music score, performer instructions, guiding principles, and notes on the collaborations that led to the creation for the performance of There Might Be Others.
This is a field guide to a process of collective composition, an archive of a project, and presents the score as a set of possibilities to be taken in parts or absorbed as a whole. Dan and I were inspired by Terry Riley’s In C, and Riley’s idea that revealing the process can inspire new iterations. When Riley released the first recording of In C in 1968, the single page score was included. Thus, the work immediately entered the public domain. Performances popped up around the country and across continents, marking a significant shift in music history whereby the inner workings of the creative process were revealed and offered to all.
Until quite recently, most dance scores were not widely discussed, theorized, or published. In publishing this document our purpose is for this work to become an open source for reiterations, re-imaginings, and repurposing. Dan and I also collaborated with book-maker extraordinaire ELÆ, who brings to this publication their design vision and philosophy about the importance of documentation.
“Seminal works of the avant-garde become so when the inherent risk at the heart of the experiment catalyzing the vision to its fruition pushes the work’s sphere of influence beyond its original form and often its intended meaning. Intrepid choreographer Rebecca Lazier has a penchant for musical interpretation and the infinite aesthetic and physical languages in its breadth, making her among the very best of her generation. And as this book attests, possessing a vision that will bear influence on generations to come.”