Sexy, even elegant sexy, is not something you associate with the Mariinsky. The imperious troupe epitomises classical perfection to which we chastely defer but while its restraint and dignity ennoble us, they hardly quicken the pulse.

However, they looked sexy last night, and just so good in their Balanchine triple bill that you half wished they’d stop the Swan Lakes and Sleeping Beauties and dance only the Russian-born choreographer’s work. It’s as if Balanchine’s plotless ballets let the dancers be themselves, which is not swans and swains, but fit 20-somethings with energy and flair.

Vladimir Shklyarov was all this in Rubies, the middle work from Balanchine’s full-length Jewels that’s often performed in mixed bills. With floppy hair and easy manners, he’s the twinkle in the eye of Stravinsky’s music (Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra), although Irina Golub and Ekaterina Kondaurova hardly slouched. I should mention these two are only soloists, and the four men in the corps of even humbler rank, yet all had a panache you’d be pushed to find in more senior European dancers.

When you think about it, the Russian visitors should be brilliant at Balanchine. Having trained at the pre‑Revolutionary Mariinsky, his classicism is their classicism, plus they have his seriousness which, in a ballet such as Serenade (to Tchaikovsky) translates into an almost unbearable poignancy. Viktoria Tereshkina was extraordinarily moving as the lead woman, somehow conveying in this plotless ballet a story of sacrifice and longing.

Tereshkina flipped to dazzling allure as the lead woman in the first movement of Symphony in C. Set to Bizet’s music of the same name, it provided the Mariinsky with yet more scope to show off its fabulous dancers, of whom no one need have any doubt.

Tonight only. The Sleeping Beauty, Friday and Saturday. Information: 020 7304 4000, www.roh.org.uk .