Mo'Nique (Getty Images)

If there’s one cultural experience that people enjoy far more during the holidays than they do the rest of the year, it’s the ballet—any number of kiddos citywide think that ballerinas play no roles other than little Clara and the Sugar Plum Fairy. Though its timing is perfectly in sync with our sentimental yearning for ballet, tonight’s Alvin Ailey Opening Night Gala seeks to broaden our horizons a bit with performances of Ohad Naharin’s dance Minus 16, wherein audience members may join the dancers onstage, and Ailey’s own Revelations, performed live by opera singer Jessye Norman and Tony-winner Anika Noni Rose. Honorary chair Mo’Nique presides over all. An old-school pas de deux it’s not—and all the better!

New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street, 7pm, with dinner and dancing to follow at the Grand Ballroom of the Hilton New York, 1335 Avenue of the Americas, tickets and information may be found at tinyurl.com/8dayNovember28.