National Liberation Day aka Alex Dances With North Korea's Elderly

For National Liberation Day our first duty was to go to the metro and mill about with locals and take pictures of everything except for the North Korean subway operators/cops (pictured below)

After going through the three stops we arrived at their version of the Arch de Triumph which is covered with soldiers and random people going to pay their respects to the bronze statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jung Il.

After we get over the shock of being in a sea of North Korean soldiers, we make our way over to the park.  The park is filled with people eating on small grills, playing volleyball, and generally just hanging out and having a good time with drinks.  We are repeatedly asked to join groups (pictured below) as we walk by but our North Korean guide was having none of it and we were told that we had to keep going. 

Our guide led us to a pavilion filled with very old North Korean women doing traditional dances.  As soon as we got there it started to rain and so I moved under the pavilion.  

As soon as I do I felt someone grab my arm as one old lady grabs me and shoves another old lady in front of me and the dance off begins.  First of all I am deeply shocked that I am dancing much less with elderly North Koreans but even more than that I am shocked because I have absolutely no idea how the hell to do a traditional North Korean dance.  As I grabbed her hands I looked around and from the best I can gather the only rule is the raise and lower your arms while spinning in circles.  As I started to dance I am sure that I looked like a slapped ass because in my life I have never felt such a strong mixture of being very happy and deeply confused about what the fuck was going on.  

I then quickly realized that I am boring both of us since by this time I have have not discovered any more North Korean moves beyond raise/lower arms and spin in circles so I ended the dance.  The moment I do another old lady is shoved in front of me and I am back in the game.  I noticed someone across the dance floor spinning their old lady so I attempt a similar move but because of a combination of my horrible dancing ability and her shockingly firm footing it did not work out.  She quickly became deeply confused and suspicious by what I was doing and it required some pantomime to convince her that I was on the up and up and that circles were a thing.  She looked back at me (I am sure she was wondering what this stupid looking American was doing with her) as she slowly begun to rotate.  We danced some more and she even awkwardly instigated some failed spins before I once again ended our dance.  However the speedy North Korean women very quickly presented me with additional old people to dance with.  Seeing as this pattern continued for 5 more elderly people I can't figure out if I (and my horrible dancing) was a sort of punishment and trick the North Korean women were playing on each other (some of them seemed deeply hesitant about dancing with me, but both of us were given no choice) or if they just felt people should no be both dance free and on the dance floor.  I suspect it is a combination of the two to be honest.  Eventually and thankfully for both me and the countless old women of Pyongyang, I was able to break free and get out from under the pavilion, our collective ordeal was over.