REFLECTIONS: Graphic Choreography

                                                                                       by Jules Engel

My aim is to discover and not to solve problems. It is to find things that you didn't know existed!

My concern is not so much with texture as with shapes of all kinds in their multiplicity, their
relationships and their capacity for metamorphosis - the way forms are related and made dynamic
through motion.

The emphasis, then, is on the development of a visual dynamic language, independent of literature
and theatrical traditions, demonstrating that pure graphic choreography is capable of its own wordless
truth.

The approach to my films is intuitive and structured - I am always aware that the film I am doing is a
search for graphic art, not by mathematical formulas but by visual trial and error. It is a process of
discovery.

The inspiration can come from many sources - however, for me to rely on music is wrong - I prefer to
do my graphic choreography straight from my own instinct and emotions.

I often get ideas from "time," "rhythm" and "structure" from paintings, sculpture, dance performance
(Martha Graham, Merce Cunningham, Balanchine) - and sometimes "conversational" rhythm - such
was the case when I saw "Uncle Vanya."

I do not look for any kind of narrative that would lend itself to a graphic expression. I must convey
ideas through movements that could not be put into words.

Although my work is largely intuitive, as from one movement into another, it is important that the
finished film should have the presence of a "total" piece.

Abstract film is a language that speaks directly to the eye - and to the feelings, as does dance; they are
both visual arts.

There are limitless possibilities in an abstract film that are well choreographed - compared to the
restrictions of either the classical ballet or the modern dance where the former's concern is "away
from the earth" to the latter's concern, "the ground."

Abstract film has a splendid opportunity to exploit space and time choreography. Composing in space;
composing for space; infinite space; expanding and diminishing forms; disintegration of forms; flow of
movement; simultaneous rhythm; instant present; forms that interpenetrate; successive trans-
formable and ephemeral forms to disappear and then reform in an infinite progression; arrested
motion; slow motion; fragmented images; the surface of the screen; exterior rhythm; cubist
composition.

(originally published in new magazine, vol. 10)

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