“The aim of every artist is to arrest motion, which is life, by artificial means and hold it fixed so that a hundred years later when a stranger looks at it, it moves again since it is life.” – William Faulkner.
To answer this question about rhythm, I look to the book FORCE by Michael Mattessi. The importance of rhythm, as Mattessi says “is the beautiful and seamless interplay of different forces in the body that helps it stay in balance, or creates equilibrium”. By understanding rhythm, this helps you create living drawings. The reason we have rhythmic balance in our body’s, I have learned from Mattessi’s book is – GRAVITY. Because our anatomy is not linear, but, asymmetrical in its musculature, this allows motion against the force of gravity when standing still.
This frame is taken from FilmStruck’s Twitter page of a clip from THE RED SHOES (1948).