A dance to which the page was integral—fittingly for the linguistically inclined Rainer, who has penned a number of essays on her choreographies—Parts of Some Sextets was not only scored via a chart, but also timed to a book: Performers were cued by an audio tape of Rainer reading excerpts from the diary of William Bentley (1759–1819), a Salem minister who fastidiously recorded notable local events (an eclipse, a death, the arrival of an elephant).