Nighttime Pope Show

After seeing the Pope, people were understandably pretty emotional.  Some people seemed super excited and happy.  Some people seemed pensive and thoughtful.  And some people seemed sad and confused.  The Pope can bring out a lot of feelings.  It's a moving experience and affects people in different ways.

But you know what affects people in the same way?  Seeing robot dancers in foil suits.

What?  That's right!  After we saw the Pope, we were treated to an awesome evening of crazy performances!  I will list them all now.  Because I love lists.

1. Break dancers in foil suits.  Their name is Animation Crew and they were really entertaining.

This performance isn't from that night but you get an idea of what they do.

2. Crucifixion ballet.  This was a ballet that depicted the crucifixion of Jesus.  Actually, nobody announced that so first we were just watching a ballet and then a guy came out and he was totally ripped and all the girls FREAKED OUT!  But I told my friend that I thought he was supposed to be Jesus and that I was uncomfortable checking him out.  She finally believed me when he was being put up on a cross.  Super intense ballet, but well done, I guess.  I don't know anything about ballet.

Here's the performance, if you have 30 minutes to spare and love Jesus and ballet.

3.  Traditional Korean dance and drums.  Cool, fun, enjoyable.  I've seen this type of thing a billion times so I imagine actual Koreans can all do it in their sleep and aren't impressed.

4. Girl drums Nanta.  This is the note I wrote when I listed this.  I currently have no memory of what it actually was.  Nanta is a musical/drums performance thing in Korea that's based around a cooking school.  So maybe they reenacted that?  I don't know.

5.  Indian dance.  This was cool because young people from India shared their traditional dance style and everyone really enjoyed it and was very supportive.  Good stuff.

6. Monkey play with Adam and Eve and the song "What does the Fox say?".  Okay, so I don't remember everything about this play but I do remember that 2 people simulated monkeys having sexy times and then Adam and Eve came about as a result.  Pretty sure that's not in the Bible.  I remember during this part that I was kind of sitting there, jaw dropped, repeatedly saying "What is happening!??!" while everyone else around me ignored it.  This play was put on by representatives from one of the dioceses in Korea.

7.  Cambodian play.  A play performed by Cambodian representatives.  Also good and well done.

8. Bus play.  Ummm maybe if you have ever been to a Christian youth event you have seen this before.  It doesn't have any words and shows a young person being tempted by things like drugs, money, lust, alcohol, etc. before they finally get their act together and find Jesus.  This play had the added element of the young person driving a bus with these bad things in it.  

9.  Asian countries dance.  That is what my note says.  What does that even mean?!  Honestly moment, I was beyond exhausted at this point in time.  I had been awake since 4:00 am and had insane jet lag.  Plus, I'd been sitting on the floor of a makeshift tent for hours.  I was not fully conscious.  But let's assume this was a performance of multiple kinds of dance from Asia.  That sounds plausible.

10.  Traditional Korean dance.  I may have actually fallen asleep while sitting up during this performance.  Sorry Korea.

11.  Rapping priest.  This happened.  I am not sure who he is but he had people dancing all over the stage and everyone was having a great time.  I was standing and clapping and trying not to fall over from exhaustion.

Click to see an awesome party with a rapping priest.

12.  Sand art. OMG this was the coolest thing I've ever seen.  If you haven't watched a single video in this blog post, watch this one.  This woman does animations using sand and her hands.  That's a horrible description for something that is amazing.  Unfortunately, this is not the exact performance I saw but it's similar.  And it's to celebrate the canonization of the Pope John XXIII and Pope John Paul II.  So, you know, it's important.    

After all of this excitement we were driven to a university dormitory building where I realized I forgot my towel and had to dry myself off with a polo shirt for two days.  And nobody ate breakfast because we were all too tired.  But it was comfortable and nice and I was once again impressed with how much organization when into this whole event.

What was your favorite performance from the whole thing?  Anything you're jealous about?