A belated Valentine's Day surprise

I awoke yesterday morning with a start, flashing on the fact that the acclaimed Alvin Ailey dance troop was performing this week only at Zellerbach Hall on the Cal Berkeley campus.
The Alvin Ailey dance troop tours North America every late winter/ early spring and every Valentine's I tell myself I am going to buy DH tickets and every year I drop the ball.
We have never seen Alvin Ailey together. 
We don't typically exchange gifts for Valentine's Day and this year was no different but this opportunity seemed like as good excuse as any.
So even though it was a full month late and it was pouring cats and dogs, I trucked up to the Berkeley campus and bought two long awaited tickets to Alvin Ailey.

Upon waiting for the show to commence, I learned just how interested DH was in the Alvin Ailey dance theater. This would be his 5th or 6th time seeing the troop (my first, mind you) and he knew several of the songs and performances. (My man's love of dance is just one of the countless things I love about him.)
From the first dance move, I was hooked. Each of the four performances were outstanding expressions of technical skill, carnal emotion and pure soul.

Alvin Ailey's current artistic director, Robert Battle choreographed both 'Takedeme' and 'The Hunt', two tour de force performances equally captivating in their raw, minimalist power.

The final performance is traditionally Alvin Ailey's own 'Revelations', an ensemble piece that spans the book of Revelations. This legendary performance may well be the most joyful, compelling work I have seen in dance. Certainly I am no expert but it doesn't get much better than the entire sequence of 'Revelations'. From the costumes to the choreography, the whole thing could not have been more festive.
These tickets were meant to be a Valentine's Day gift for DH but I felt grateful to him for sharing Alvin Ailey with me!
Happy Valentine's!