Return of a rising star

If you follow dance you will probably remember Nina Ananiashvili from some 10 years ago when the Bolshoi ballerina was guesting at the Opera House.

Fine-boned and elegant, she was much liked, and there was talk of her staying on with The Royal Ballet, like her countryman and fellow Bolshoi dancer Irek Mukhamedov (Sir Kenneth MacMillan admired them both).

But while Irek came, she opted for a dual career with the Bolshoi and American Ballet Theatre in New York, meaning she has been little seen in London.

That changed last night when Ananiashvili and Alexei Fadeyechev (her former Bolshoi partner, and one-time Bolshoi director), arrived at the Wells with their small troupe, Moscow Dance Theatre. There are two mixed programmes, the first (until Thursday) a triple bill of newish work that polite people would call disappointing.

The truth is that the choreography does Ananiashvili few favours. Green, by Stanton Welch, an Australian who has just taken over at Houston Ballet, is a plotless, Balanchinian piece with nice-enough steps but little choreographic depth.

Ananiashvili leads, accompanied by Dmitri Belogolovtsev and Andrei Uvarov, two gifted dancers who have almost magical leaps. The corps de ballet occupy the background space. Few are shown to best effect, Ananiashvili especially who seemed tired and distracted, her hair loose and her make-up undone.

With beach-bright lighting and a sunnier mood, Second Before The Ground by American Trey McIntyre is an easier ballet to like. However, just as you are beginning to feel philosophical, along comes goofy flirting and bare-chested shadow boxing, neither of which the Russians do well.

Last was Leah by Alexei Ratmansky, the new director of the Bolshoi Ballet. Ananiashvili calls it her Giselle, but its muddled action and leaden steps are not a patch on that earlier ballet.

Programme 1, until Thursday . Programme 2, Friday and Saturday. Information: 020 7863 8000.

Nina Ananiiashvili & The Moscow Dance Theatre: Programme 1 (Green/Second Before The Ground/Leah)