In anthropology (Victor Turner), this is called the "Liminal Space." It is a threshold. It is the "waiting room" of identity. It justifies why you needed a phase where the figure was distorted and static.

Identity is rarely a solid architecture; it is often a liquid state. Anthropologists have long attempted to map the territory that lies "betwixt and between" our defined social roles. A ritual of separation, a stripping away of status, or the terrifying freedom of anonymity—a threshold, a margin, or a void?