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‘Music’ comes in every color

PHOTO PROVIDED From left, Maddie Ziegler as Music and Kate Hudson as Zu in a still from “Music.”

When I sat down to watch the film, “Music,” with my pen and paper, I prepared myself to be angry, frustrated and confused — and I was all of those things, especially when it came to the idea of casting a neurotypical person, Maddie Ziegler, to play a character, Music, who just happens to be on the Autism spectrum.

That lack of authentic representation from the Autism community and utter frustration from ableism aside — this story of two half-sisters, Music and Zu (played by Kate Hudson), who happens to be a newly sober drug dealer, came across as an emotional depiction of siblings coming together in a journey of self-love and coming together through colorful pieces of song and dance, which to me, were more entertaining and less demeaning.

In the beginning, viewers see Music living with her older grandmother. She has a routine: waking up, getting her eggs and bacon as her grandmother splits her hair down the center and braids her long brunette locks before she goes on her daily walk.

Unfortunately, within the first 10 minutes, her grandmother passed away.

Conveniently though, Zu, who is looking for money, comes back into the picture. She then takes over guardianship of Music while also trying to maintain her sobriety and selling drugs to make ends meet.

Between scenes of Music and Zu having to work out their “differences” and figuring out how to live together in harmony, there are pieces of song and dance that match what psychologists have deemed the color theory, which links color to feelings and emotional states according to colorpsychology.org.

I am going to be looking at how the choreography and color theory from two distinct scenes and how the colorful scenes lent itself to the plot

In “1+1” there are notes of pink, yellow and green, three colors that represent positive emotional response including notes of childhood sweetness, vulnerability and innocence from pink, yellow including notes of happiness, joy and energy and green including notes of growth, harmony and calmness.

The choreography in the piece lends itself to these notes in having a number one, pointer finger gesture motif, with Music standing in front of Zu, doing the same one finger gesture, then antagonizing each other, as siblings do.

Throughout the scene, the two dance together in perfect sync.

Before the musical scene plays, Zu plans a pool party just for Music. Zu sets up a hot pink inflatable kiddie pool, puts on her shades and suit and you see a big smile appear on Music’s face, even though she didn’t want to swim.

The two were still very early on in building their relationship, but you could see that the two found sincerity in one another.

After a friend of Music’s passes away, the song “Music” plays, while colors of white, red, grey and blue grace the walls.

The scene has Zu singing a more somber song while Music dances with the ghost of her friend.

Her grandmother can also be seen sitting at a table watching the scene play out until she and Music’s friend ride off into a light, leaving just Music and Zu alone together.

What stands out the most to me, is the color red, representing notes of passion, life, love and even more negative notes of danger, while grey sends messages of uncertainty.

The choreography in this piece seems more urgent than the rest in the film. There were rises and falls, as well as turns and sharp arm gestures.

The scene ends with Zu hugging and comforting Music, who appears to be grieving. This is a little bit later on in the film, where the two have gone through some of their lows but have grown through it.

I think one line through this song is a perfect summary of the relationship between the two characters, the choreography and color theory.

“I won’t let you down, we are together now,” Zu sings.

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Mallorie McIlwain is a staff reporter for The Express.

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