Today let's talk about last week's Mother Son Dance at Keystone Academy Charter School, which had a super hero theme this year. I admit I started out stumped about what to do with this, as we had already done the superhero theme in 2016 as our first dance with this school. Back then, we had gone in a cartoony/comic book direction, and thanks to two of my very talented friends (who made pretty much everything while we just watched in awe), had this amazing cardboard city scene for people to stand in for their photos. We also incorporated a Captain America shield, bat symbol in the sky, and the comic book style action words like 'Bam!', 'Smash', etc. to add to the super hero theme. 

(2016 Superhero themed Mother-Son dance)

Sure it had come out pretty well, but for this year's dance I no longer have the two friends available who helped with the first dance (they moved out of the area), and the city scene from the first dance didn't survive the summer humidity (it was just cardboard after all), so building something like that again wasn't going to happen. Also thought when planning this dance was how our style of the setups has changed a lot since then to have a more professional appearance, so had to keep that in mind when choosing what to do. 

After a lot of researching options online, we narrowed down the options to two possible backgrounds, the rooftop scene or a dark scene under a city bridge. The deciding factor ended up being how we could add to the scene with props to have people stand in a scene instead of just on a background. We also wanted something we could reuse in the future, which we felt the rooftop scene could more so than the dark bridge. 

(Original concept of having crates and tools to look like a rooftop storage area)

My initial vision for the setup was to add crates and go in the direction of an unused rooftop space used for storage that a superhero might be standing on to overlook the city for trouble. I took a walk through home depot and found some metal piping to look like a rooftop chimney. It was finally beginning to come together, but still was not where I wanted it to be. 

(The initial setup, it was definitely missing something)

After some brainstorming, my husband decided to add the bat signal, and I was going to see if I could find another crate to write 'Danger' or something on with spray paint. After a while in the craft store, I found another crate, letter stencils and paint, then happened to find black foam letters. I figured they were worth a try, so at home I asked a friend what they thought might be written on villain boxes. After some very good suggestions to get the creative juices flowing, I had crafted the fun wording that you see on the final images. Our scene then changed from a rooftop storage area to superheroes discovering where the villains have been hiding their cargo on a rooftop. I really like how this came out. 

(The final wording on the crates)

Another detail I need to mention is the newspaper, which was created by my friend Molly and delivered right before the dance. It was a last minute detail that I think really helped bring the scene together. 

(Custom created newspaper for the super hero theme, thanks to Molly F.)

Now that I've told you about the behind the scenes, let me talk a bit about the portraits. Every dance I always have a few people that stick out for one reason or another, so wanted to share some of that now. 

Let's start with one you have likely seen already if you follow our facebook page. This mom asked if she could do two poses, one with and one without an ant man action figure. I didn't know why she wanted it that way, but said sure, we can do that. So I take the first image with mom and the son doing a cool action pose, then I walk over to get the action figure to put into the scene, and the son walks out to wait on the side. I then realized he was wearing a matching costume, so the second image was him 'shrinking' to stand on top of the crates. Such a fun and creative idea! 

(Ant man shrinks, two image series)

Since we're talking about creativity, below is another two part series. It's a mother son dance, so mom wanted a portrait with her boys. Her daughter also was there to assist with dance setup when we arrived, so they brought a costume for her to change into and she 'snuck into' the scene for a second photo. I love her expression! Haha

(Another two part series, the daughter sneaking into the scene with her mom and brothers)

Now let's talk about the cute little guy who is the DJ's son. This cutie stood to the side wanting so bad to have his photo taken, so one mom pulled him in after her portrait was taken to take this quick pose with her son. He was so happy! He then came back later for his own solo portrait. I love his little smile. 

(The DJ's son wanted to be part of the excitement)

Another detail I want to point out was something I didn't notice until I was going through the photos later to do editing. When I zoomed in on this photo I loved how this baby was doing a perfect superhero pose. He looks like he's about to fly off to take care of some bad guy! You go little guy!

(Super baby!)

A definite difference I noticed between this year's dance and the 2016 dance when I was going through them for this blog post was the costumes. In 2016 there were a few costumes, or superhero themed shirts, but this year the moms and sons ROCKED IT! I saw lots of costumes on both moms and kids, superhero shirts, masks and capes, and I love how everyone was willing to strike a fun pose. 

(Spotted Storm and Wolverine!)

We had all sorts of superheroes (and some villains) from every hero universe make an appearance. To add to the fun, we had some superman flying away poses. (We were on top of a tall city building after all)

(Superman flying pose)

And of course Spiderman hand posing showed up a few times too, to help him navigate through the city buildings. When the first kid started doing it, I had no idea what he was doing, then once I realized I was happy to suggest the pose to all the spidermen who showed up that night. 

(Spiderman hand pose)

Besides being in costume, we also had several heroes who were trying to be themselves at the party when not fighting crime, from Spiderman ready to throw his mask on at a moment's notice, to superman hiding his costume under his normal clothes, and even Tony Stark was trying to play it cool when not taking down bad guys as Iron Man. 

(Spiderman is ready to mask up if needed, and Tony Stark is enjoying the party when not being Iron Man)

And what kind of superhero event would this be if some villains didn't crash the party as well. Every good event is always being secretly attended by the bad guys, though maybe they are really just jealous they weren't invited. 

(Villains Joker, Cat Woman, and Penguin made an appearance)

And last but not least, where you find Batman villains and a Bat signal, Batman, Robin and Batgirl are usually not far behind. So here is one of the man Batman who made an appearance, looking like they are about to go punch a bad guy. 

(Batman, Batgirl, and Robin)

A final tidbit I want to include that I thought was funny was when posing, I usually start by saying "put your arms around each other", which caused several of the bigger boys to immediately groan and give me faces, but then the next line was "now throw a punch", and the annoyed faces immediately turned to big smiles as they gave me their best posed punches. 

(Who knew telling him to throw a punch would turn that frown upside-down) 

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. I had a lot of fun creating this setup and seeing everyone dressed up, the costumes really made this all come together, and this is now one of my favorite dances. I wish I could take the time to highlight every photo taken that night, but instead I will attach the link to the entire gallery here so you can take a look and enjoy it yourself. Check out the Whole Gallery Here!