Root of the Week: GRAPH (Friday)

Photography, Choreography, Cinematography  (Noun)

In a figurative sense, people can “write” using media other than words. The Greek word photo means “light” and a photograph could be described as a document “written” with light. 

The Greek word kinein means “to move.” In the 1890s, the French Lumiere brothers developed a technology to project moving pictures onto a screen—the beginning of modern cinema. Cinematography is the art of making films, which, like still photographs, are “written” using light. The cinematographer is responsible for designing and crafting the final look of a film, which is often as distinctive and important as the script itself in telling a story.

The Greek word khoros refers to the performers who sang and danced as the Chorus that was a feature of ancient Greek tragedies such as Sophocles’ Oedipus plays.  (Notice that the letter “k” often changes to “c” in the English words based on Greek origins). A choreographer, in effect, “writes” using movement.  The word choreography can refer both to the sequence of steps dancers perform and also to the written notation of that sequence.  Brilliant choreographers  include the Russian-born George Balanchine, who came to the United States in 1933 and revolutionized modern ballet, and the American Alvin Ailey, whose work gave new prominence to the contributions of African Americans in the world of dance.