When the company imaginatively used Act 2 of Giselle to lend a substantial entree to a programme of shorter items from various classical ballets, the main male role of Albrecht introduced to me Vladimir Iznov.

Having been unable to catch the SPBT's Nutcracker before Christmas, this was my first sighting of this 26-year-old from Irkutsk in Siberia. He is on his debut tour with SPBT, and is yet another of the company's products from the city's Vaganova Academy - formerly the Kirov School.

Already he equals the young but already stalwart Dmitry Akulinin in physical presence and he projected the demeanour of the deceitful but deeply remorseful Albrecht with a gentle but undoubteldy noble strength, through the gloom of his grief for the lost Giselle.

Striking was his long line and his distinctive arch of the back, and when I noticed his repertoire includes Ali the Slave in Le Corsair, he made me recall that physical aspect of the unmistakeable Faroukh Ruzimatov, who sensationally represented the Kirov's modern interpretation of that role in the 1980s.

A closer look at Iznov's acting would be welcome and one hopes he may have the character to lift the level of commitment and passion that has been fairly midway down the thermometer among several the SPBT's favoured principals who I have seen in these, nevertheless, exciting years at Brighton.

It was good to see Anna Podlesnaya shed some of her years by projecting through the transcendental gauze of the posthumous Giselle, glimpses of the young girl's characteristic vibrancy, in her pas de deus with Albrecht in her bid to save him from the retribution of the Willis and Yuliya Petrova's developing interpretation of their ruler, Myrtha.

The inclusion of a Gala show in their Brighton visit this Christmas gave the company's fans a chance to taste what the St Petersburgers have in their colourful Russian heritage. Across our buds they floated some Harlequinade, Paquita, Raymonda and Don Quixote to buck up the two standard and familiar Swan Lake and Sleeping Beauty items they followed.

The first three are Russian specialities and hardly ever toured in the British provinces, and the fourth not enough.

This second deck from the SPBT chocolate box revealed more new potential stars and growing existing talent in these classics.

There was the necessary radiance, appetite and assurance in newcomer Astghik Ogannesyan's Princess Aurora in the Rose Adagio. But another new soloist Eleanora Adeeva has some way to go. In her black swan in pas de deux with Akulinin, she seemed content to present the steps and did not give us the vital and challenging narrative content of Odile's sly attempt to trick Prince Siegfried.

Akulinin, who starred with Irina Kolesnikova in the SPBT's South African tour of Swan Lake, already out of DVD, looked relaxed and loose in his first variation but tightened up for the second and third.

The less familiar items then burst out before us. The Harlequinade pas de deux brought forward Dmitry Lysenko as the pleading but energetic Harlequin, spritely, audacious and loveable, and the cheekily amiable Olesya Levchenko as Columbine. Lysenko, one suspects, looks set to understudy the currently injured Dmitri Shevtsov's Jester in Swan Lake. Levchenko later showed her versatility in the pas de trois from La Paquita with the always engaging Liliya Akhmetshina.

The Panaderos from Raymonda showcased six men and a couple in red, black and terracotta. Costumes in the Gala were never less than excellent, often refreshing in their choice of colour. I liked the burnt orange and white in La Paquita for the corps, who were so satisfyingly unified in the set-pieces.

Then came the famously spectacular pas de deux from Don Quixote. Its virtuoso demands were met by the explosive Vyacheslav Sunegin and it came as no surprise to find the 21-year-old Asiya Lukmanova cast as his bride-to-be. I hope it is not too long before she may graduate to handle the role in a full production here on a future tour.

The SPBT have used two of Swan Lake, The Nutcracker or Sleeping Beauty as their backbone annual offerings in these welcome years of Brighton seasonal residencies. The third item has sometimes been a Gala but next year will be a test of their drawing power if they do not extend the formula with an alternative full-length ballet. Last year it was again Giselle, with Kolesnikova and Akulinin.

I am informed La Bayadere will come with them next year but the obstacle is that The Dome is arguably not wide enough to present their opulent court scenes and may also mitigate against presenting an Entry of the Shades to the company's desired scale. This would be a shame and possibly an inflexible denial to Brighton which is plainly a dance city, and one probably beginning to crave from the SPBT something new. Frustratingly, La Bayadere was given at Eastbourne's Congress Theatre a couple of years ago.

But could the alternative be Don Quixote? Or what about Le Corsair? I can see some fruitful roles for the SPBT in that.

• Oleg Horutkin, one of prima ballerina's Irina Kolesnikova's new partners, broke a bone in his foot on the first night of the tour at Glasgow in October.




• Kolesnnikova was reported to have a chill just after Christmas, so missed the first Gala Night that I saw.




• Young principals Andrei Yakhniuk and Sabina Yapparova, husband and wife, have left the company.




• See elsewhere on the Dance section Richard Amey's interview with SPBT's star character dancer Dymchik Saykeev.




• SPBT return to Sussex at The Hawth, Crawley, on January 9 and 10. 01293553636 www.hawth.co.uk