"The dance, featuring Melissa Saint Amour's evocative choreography, served as the program's centerpiece. Her 10 solos, duets, and group works poured onto the nightclub set while John Saint Amour's jazz quartet served up standards including "One for My Baby" and Jacques Brel's "Ne Me Quitte Pas." Saint Amour, the choreographer, has a knack for richly integrated duets and well-designed groupings. Her fine dancers perform with an athleticism and plasticity that make her sometimes repetitive movement choices still memorable. Sylvana Christopher's down-in-the-dumps solo to Brel's song demonstrated her facility, with back and torso, at telegraphing heartbreak. Talia Bar-Cohen and Aaron Jackson made a first-rate pair in "When Sunny Gets Blue," with athletic lifts, lanky leg extensions, deep lunges and loving caresses. Later Christin Barksdale and Billy Smith soared elegantly with ceiling-grazing lifts, leaps and sweeping turns in "Fly Me to the Moon."
Lisa Traiger, The Washington Post
The winner is definitely the superb jazz quartet that gave a solid performance along with vocalist Lori Ann Williams, who gave comparable scatting to the late Ella.
- Foggy Bottom News Online
