When Darcey Bussell said she was winding down from The Royal Ballet, you could hear the wailing across London.

Born and bred in the capital, Bussell is the best known and best loved ballerina we've produced for 20 years. In fact, she's the only world class ballerina we've produced for 20 years. Not a great actress, it's true, but a radiant performer with lovely technique and gorgeous long limbs.

Still, Bussell said she'd appear at Covent Garden from time to time, which she does, and there were hints of freelance gigs with old friends and dancing partners. Her first opened at Sadler's Wells last night, a mixed bill of new and little-seen work with former Kirov dazzler Igor Zelensky.

A swell party, you'd think, and there's no reason not to. Bussell and Zelensky have danced together for years, only instead of the upbeat, team mood of the publicity snaps, the evening felt unbalanced and the pair detached, with Zelensky going from moody to gloomy and Bussell dancing with her lights dimmed.

The reason is the programme, which seems more about Zelensky's new job than his dancing with Darcey. He's just become artistic director of the State Ballet in Novosibirsk, a town the far side of the Ural Mountains. Six able dancers from the Siberian troupe performed a new abstract piece by US-based Taiwan choreographer Edwaard Liang.

All was fleet and neat, but it hardly matches the innovative choreography we're used to seeing in London. No better, and equally badly lit, was Zelensky's solo Concerto Grosso. This abstract ballet by Russian choreographer Alla Sigalova made no use of his charms, with Sigalova seemingly intent on grounding Zelensky rather than releasing him.

Two minutes into Roland Petit's 1946 classic Le jeune homme et la mort, and you see what he can do. Petit's choreography looks over-dramatic by today's standards, but the nervy, jabbing footwork and blatantly erotic moves reveal Zelensky as the vigorous dancer he still is.

Bussell, 37, looked foxy as the femme fatale, although her acting, as we know, lacks depth. More convincing was her performance in the new Alastair Marriott duet Kiss, an abstract and muscular piece that Bussell danced with one-time Royal Ballet dancer William Trevitt, better known as one half of the Ballet Boyz.

If Bussell and Zelensky could snag their witty approach to programming, and feature proper live music, all would improve.

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