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A mixed evening, this, with some moments of brilliance and some less successful ones. It’s always the risk you take with a mixed bill, that there will be parts one enjoys more than others, and this evening felt rather more together in the first half than the second.

We opened with Edwaard Liang’s delicate duet Finding Light, starring the absolutely stunning Yuan Yuan Tan, partnered by the rather wooden Damian Smith. Tan is something else – she moves as if she has fewer bones that a human being should, absolutely fluid. She’s a joy to watch, and Liang’s choreography over Vivalid’s sweeping strings can only be described as lush.

The second piece, Fang-Yi Sheu in a Russel Maliphant solo, PresentPast, worked less well for me overall. Sheu is also a gorgeous dancer to watch but the piece feels slight and a bit static, with moments of beauty. Michael Hulls’s beautiful lighting design does a lot to lift this piece, especially in its quieter moments when the light ripples as though Sheu is under water. It’s extremely effective visually, but the choreography itself feel as though it ever quite takes off.

After the Rain, the first Christopher Wheeldon piece of the evening, closes the first half. Another duet between Tan and Smith, once again Tan is effervescent while Smith feels slightly clumsy. Everything she does looks effortless while every move he makes looks like it takes a lot of concentration. The choero is varied and interesting, bringing the first half to a satisfying close.

And then it all gets a bit strange. The second Wheeldon piece, Five Movements, Three Repeats, which features all four dancers (the aforementioned three plus Clifton Brown) is less enjoyable. The choreography is not quite interesting or varied enough to justify its repetitions – I’m not sure that the repeats do Wheeldon any favours. It has some nice moments, especially when all four dancers come together in unison, mirroring or contrasting. Some of it feels a bit by-numbers, though, esepcially the floor work, and arm-movements are over-used.

The final piece, Maliphant’s Two x Two is oddly curtailed. Featuring the two women, Tan and Sheu, each in her own square of light, the piece begins slowly and begins to builds excitingly. But then instead of reaching a climax or growing into something spectacular, it peters out. By focusing again on arm movements for the most part, the piece ends up feeling static and samey. Again, this is no criticism of Tan and Sheu, who are one again fabulous, rather that the choreography feels a bit stilted. Andy Cowton’s original music throbs and drives the pace, briefly, but then doesn’t go anywhere.

A mixture, then, of some successful pieces and some less so – but as it’s a mixed bill I’m sure others will enjoy different pieces more than I did. There are some extraordinary lifts and some of Wheeldon’s choreography, particularly, is gorgeous. Definitely worth seeing, mainly for the extraordinary flexibility and fluidity of Tan and Sheu, but it could do with some tidying up in the second half.

Liang / Maliphant / Wheeldon is at Sadler’s Wells until 16 November. For more information and tickets visit Sadler’s Wells’s website.