Fall 2026
Document Series #14
Edited by Rachel Valinsky
ISBN: 979-8-9947789-0-6
Book: 30 USD
Book and LP: 50 USD
Pre-order (ships in September 2026)
About the book
[siccer] by Will Rawls is a new publication expanding on the artist’s choreographic, video, and installation work of the same name. Drawn from the Latin, the adverb “[sic]” is used to indicate incorrect spelling within a quotation. Upturning this perceived conflict, [siccer] illuminates the verbal, physical play that marks how Black performance actively eludes capture, and speculates on the potential for collective strategies of narrating the world, uncorrected. [siccer] reinterprets the “strangeness” foisted upon Black bodies as a misread of the desirable, collective contagion that continually confounds “capture.”
In [siccer], Rawls experiments with stop-motion to consider the ways in which Black bodies are relentlessly documented, distorted, and circulated in the media. Throughout [siccer]’s live performance, five dancers are suspended in an uncanny reenactment of an iconic American film. When the camera’s shutter closes momentarily between photographs, a gap in surveillance occurs that allows collaborators to play within this interval through physical and vocal improvisations.
A long-term collaboration, this work exemplifies Rawls’s approach to choreography as an expanded, multimedia practice that includes live performance, photography, video, installation, vocals, and writing. In his work, he considers choreography as a potent collider for movement and language, for sending the notion of the human being into question, and for practicing the self in real time.
This volume offers an expansive view into the choreographic, filmic, and critical dimensions of Rawls’s multidisciplinary work. Building off of performance script of [siccer], the richly illustrated book includes an introduction by dramaturg Kemi Adeyemi, in-depth annotations by Rawls, process notes and production documentation, a contribution by lighting and scenic designer Maggie Heath, and extended dialogues with performers Holland Andrews, keyon gaskin, jess pretty, Katrina Reid, and Jeremy Toussaint-Baptiste.
About the author
Will Rawls is a multidisciplinary choreographer working with dance, language, and other media to investigate the poetics of embodiment and the materiality of time. He has presented work at Performance Space New York; The Kitchen; L’Alliance New York; REDCAT; Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; The Momentary; On the Boards; and Portland Institute for Contemporary Art. He has received fellowships and residencies from the Guggenheim Foundation, Herb Alpert Foundation, Foundation for Contemporary Arts, United States Artists, Rauschenberg Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and the MacDowell Colony. He is currently Associate Professor of Choreography in the Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance at UCLA.