Sergei Polunin is a man in motion Sergei Polunin's snap resignation from the Royal Ballet on Tuesday meant the sudden cancellation of all his scheduled Covent Garden performances. It also meant the crashing of the Sadler's Wells website as punters scrambled for the remaining tickets for Ivan Putrov's Men in Motion featuring a guest spot by the errant Ukrainian prodigy. The packed house was liberally sprinkled with non-balletgoers determined to see what last week's media storm was all about, and Polunin did not disappoint. He danced Narcisse, a fruity slice of soviet bravura by Kasian Goleizovsky set to Nikolai Tcherepnin's Narcisse et Echo. The 1960 gala titbit is packed with urgent runs, anguished pirouettes and twisted leaps that show a young man beguiled and eventually destroyed by the burden of his own loveliness. Polunin's party piece was picked months ago but it could scarcely have been more apt. The young star's sudden celebrity helped gloss over the fact that two of the promised Russian guests failed to show due to 'visa problems' (although without a company to sponsor him Polunin may soon have a few visa problems of his own). The six remaining dancers did their best to flesh out what remained of the advertised programme including a bare-chested solo for Putrov (Ashton's Dance of the Blessed Spirits) and his own Ithaka, an old-fashioned menage a trois to Paul Dukas's 1912 ballet score La Peri. The set, by Brit-artist Gary Hume, consisted of a series of panels in various shades of green that looked like the work of a rather undecided interior decorator. Even if the Russian visitors had danced, I doubt they could have outshone Daniel Proietto whose mesmerising performance of Russell Maliphant's Afterlight was a welcome reminder that ballet does not have a monopoly on physical virtuosity. The eastern promise of Erik Satie's Gnossiennes is perfectly matched by Proietto's dervish-like display of vari-speed pirouettes. The Argentinian dancer will never play Siegfried but I doubt even Polunin could hack those quicksilver changes of mood and tempo or match those impossible backbends - as if his feet were nailed to the floor. Polunin's graceless mid-season departure will prove an ugly stain on Monica Mason's last few months at the Royal Opera House but she has maintained a dignified (if intensely frustrating) radio silence since issuing her short, shocked statement last Tuesday. There was no sign of Mason at the Wells on Friday but there was a strong Royal Ballet presence nonetheless and the mood was resolutely upbeat and conciliatory. The message coming from Tony Hall and the other Covent Garden top brass is that Polunin simply needs a little time and space to get himself back on track and that 'the door remains open'. Next season's repertoire has yet to be officially announced. Let's hope they can make space for The Prodigal Son...