The Circus (1977)

"...Sousa begins with the footage of performers in the midst of their activities. She then alters the choreography (via optical printing and extensive processing) into a slower, sometimes nearly still, dance of colors and shapes freed of lifelike requirements. Her concern with physicality divides its targets equally between the performing bodies and the film within which they are activated. The Circus flattens the flamboyant action into graphic details, dissolving those details further into mere traces, striations of color, and the pure movement of film grain." B. Ruby Rich, Chicago Reader, 1979