Sitting down, preparing for the start of Augustana College's Friday-night performance of Metamorphoses, I marveled at the pool that took up a majority of the stage space, but worried that it would be a gimmicky, annoying distracting from the show - a series of vignettes based on Ovid's Greek myths.

Because it's called Love Stories, you'd rightfully expect Ballet Quad Cities' latest presentation to be chockablock with stirring physicality and sensual pas de deux. And indeed, this Valentine's Day-inspired outing - given the same title as last February's Ballet Quad Cities production, but boasting new vignettes by a quintet of choreographers - will find the company's professional dancers expressing, in thrillingly nonverbal fashion, what Executive Director Joedy Cook describes as "the many angles to love."

Yet for her contribution to Love Stories, 29-year-old choreographer and Ballet Quad Cities veteran Lynn Andrews appears to have been inspired less by romantic love than her sheer love of dance. That, and perhaps her love of a challenge.

"We did it in five days," said Andrews of the clever, exuberant piece that I watched, in rehearsal, during our early-January conversation. "And it was crazy. It was like, 'Eleven dancers! Five days! Seventeen minutes of music! Go!'

Good God, is the Circa '21 Dinner Playhouse's All Shook Up fun. The high energy on stage kicks into overdrive with the first song, "Jailhouse Rock," and barely lets up as the cast sings, dances, and emotes its way through many of Elvis Presley's hits. I was thrilled with the opening-night performance, and my lingering excitement has me still smiling as I write this the day after seeing the jukebox musical.

The Gift of the Magi is my favorite holiday tale. While the surprise is lost whenever I read it again, I still remember the goosebumps I felt when I first discovered O. Henry's story of a man and woman making significant personal sacrifices in order to buy each other Christmas gifts. And while New Ground Theatre's production of the musical version of this classic narrative did not give me the same delightful chills, it did leave me with a warm feeling of holiday joy.