Meeting Captain Marvel at Marvel Universe Live!

Last week the lovely people at Marvel Universe Live invited me and my family to go see the show at the Patriot Center, which is right in our hometown. This was extremely exciting for us because my daughters had been somewhat surly for the past two months whenever the word "Marvel" was mentioned. They were not happy that their brother had the opportunity to go see the show in Tampa in June while they stayed home.

Then the nice Marvel people told us that we would get to meet with one of the cast members before the show. They they set us up with an interview and five free tickets. To say we were excited was an understatement. Since my husband couldn't make it, we used our fifth ticket to bring one of the kids' friends. So it was me, three girls and the boy off to see the show and meet a superhero in real life. 

The cast member that we got to meet was Captain Marvel, who in case you don't know, is a female superhero. She's played in the show by Ashtain Rothchild. Getting to meet her with the kids was really, really awesome and special, I don't know how else to put it. When we saw the show in June it was all about the boy. But this time, it was this incredible girl-empowering experience.

When we began to interview Ashtain, we asked her if she was an actor or a martial artist or a dirtbike rider. The people in the show do a lot of pretty crazy stunts and all of them are apparently the very best in their respective fields. It turns out that she's a professional dancer. Let me mention at this moment that all three of the girls that I had with me are dancers (ages 5, 11 and 12). They dance at the same studio and they LOVE it with all their hearts. It's their thing.

The girls' eyes got big and they stared at her in a whole new way. Ashtain looks like a professional dancer but moreover, she looks like the professional athlete that she is. She is beautiful and strong. She looks equally capable of an elegant arabesque and a rapid, lethal throat punch.

She told the girls how her training in dance had taught her to perform, to take direction, to quickly learn choreography and movement. How it enabled her to become proficient in basic martial arts and stage combat. She told them to stick with dance, and take lots of ballet (even if they thought it was a little bit boring) because that's where they would learn the most fundamentals. She offered to keep in touch with them if they ever had any questions or needed advice about dance.

Then I asked her a few things about the show and made some stupid jokes about wanting her to be in the Avengers movie so I could claim that she was my third cousin and/or pretend we were best friends on twitter. The PR people smiled and took a few pictures. 

Here we are ready to defeat the enemies of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Then our 12 year old friend asked her a question, her face and voice were very serious. She said that she loved dance but she was worried that she would be known as "the dance girl" and that she might get boxed in to that label.

Ashtain stopped smiling and looked her right in the eye. "The only person who can put you in a box is you. Don't let what other people think stop you from doing what you want. Labels and putting people in boxes... None of that stuff matters. What matters is you working hard for what you want and never caring what other people think."

She was so sincere that we all needed a second. I looked at those sweet girls and to my delight, they all bore a similar expression that seemed to say: MESSAGE RECEIVED, CAPTAIN MARVEL. WE ARE READY TO SAVE THE WORLD. AND WE DON'T GIVE A RIP WHAT ANYBODY THINKS ABOUT THAT.

::sniffs. wipes tears.:: 

Then we went to watch the show. When Captain Marvel flew past our seats (yes, she flies) we stood up and waved like lunatics and she saluted us. The kids loved it. The show was just as good as I remembered it, though a totally different experience to see it in a smaller arena (way better). The girls, who had been waiting all summer to see it, were thrilled and thought it was great.

There she is, about to toss that dude off the scaffolding while trading witty comebacks with Tony Stark.

A huge thank you to Marvel Universe Live, Feld entertainment, Ashtain Rothchild, and Nikita Bhappu for everything. 
 
(c) Mommyland Blogs 2013-2014

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