[1] Like Deren's previous work, A Study in Choreography for Camera (1945), she explores the use of dance on film through the lens of commentary of societal norms, metamorphosis, and anthropomorphism.

Deren became known for her affinity for dance in other subsequent films such as Meditation on Violence, Ensemble for Somnambulists, and Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti.

Elinor Cleghorn writes: "While she never undertook formal training, she identified as a dancer; but rather than pursuing a career as a performer she made her fascination with dance as cultural expression the focus of her progression as a writer and researcher.

Close-up and slow motion highlight the intense feeling on Deren's face as she talks and moves her hands up and down, performing the first of the rituals in the film.

"[4] Deren's character in relation to Christiani's is almost mirror-like, leading film writer Bruce McPherson to write: "In Ritual in Transfigured Time, Maya appears as the protagonist’s counterpart, at once a double of Christiani and her familiar spirit, in a social choreography that moves towards the accomplishment of the protagonist’s ‘critical metamorphosis.’"[3] This metamorphosis is further contextualized by writer William C. Wees, who says: "...references to water and dance accumulate and gain increasing significance as the film proceeds.

It is suggested by references to Deren's use of positive and negative images: the widow's black gown is transformed (in negative) into a white bridal dress at the end…"[5] The personal nature of Deren's work, like her other films, is present in Ritual, as it's said some of the themes throughout are direct links to her life, albeit shrouded in her characteristic muddled storytelling.

But she tried to comprehend and transcend that experience by setting it in a context not of resolution and closure, but of contradiction and assimilation (loss and gain, mourning and restitution, death and survival); the widow, drowned, is also a bride, alive, alone.