Ethan Stiefel’s return to “Apollo” on Sunday afternoon was marred by American Ballet Theatre’s almost perverse decision to assign him Paloma Herrera as Terpsichore. It was Ms. Herrera’s debut in the role (she has previously danced Polyhymnia), and she and Mr. Stiefel have never, in my experience, danced together magnetically or with any palpable pleasure. Furthermore, Ms. Herrera, when venturing into something unfamiliar or anxiety-inducing, often becomes tight and dogged, almost beyond the reach of even the most sympathetic partner.

Ms. Herrera was far less at ease here than she had been Thursday night, when she danced the “Paquita” pas de deux with Jose Manuel Carreno. While there were no partnering glitches, there was evident strain when Ms. Herrera and Mr. Stiefel came to a couple of the more difficult spots in their adagio. They seemed at times almost to be glaring at each other, while making only cursory attempts to evince appropriately warm responses.

Ms. Herrera, together with Gillian Murphy and Maria Riccetto – also making their respective debuts as Polyhymnia and Calliope – attractively laid out the rudiments of their variations. I must apologize to Irina Dvorovenko for highlighting the way she made eyes at the audience during her Polyhymnia variation Friday night, for Ms. Murphy on Sunday included the same flirtatious looks, albeit in a muted key. Evidently this is the way it is being coached, but the role suffers from being conceived as a soubrette.

The ABT program contains what was once a standard bit of misinformation, that “Apollo” was the first classical ballet created for Diaghilev since “Les Sylphides” 20 years earlier. I would like to know exactly where that leaves Nijinska’s 1924 “Les Biches,” also created for Diaghilev, and just as deeply versed in the classical vocabulary. In any case, “Les Sylphides” isn’t a classical ballet, although it uses the academic vocabulary, and “Apollo” is really a neoclassical dance narrative, a kinetic bildungsroman of Olympus. That isn’t to say that every step is meant to move the plot along: Movement is allowed to expound poetically on the situations it explicates.

What was perhaps most refreshing about Mr. Stiefel’s performance was the way he incised the plot points and significant incidents in Apollo’s evolution. He was fragile and bewildered when he hopped out wrapped in swaddling clothes, stiff and uncoordinated as he tried to take his first steps, wonder-struck when he found that his arms knew their way around a lyre. His sometimes paroxysmic spurts of energy were audacious, yet amid the high jinks of the coda, he made it clear that Apollo now felt it was his duty to restrain the muses from get ting too carried away. Accepting their maternal ministrations one last time, his awakening to his destiny still contained an element of confusion and doubt, before he semi-sauntered into the apotheosis – calibrating how much colloquialism to interject for relevance is a performance concern of Mr. Stiefel’s.

Although Mr. Stiefel last danced “Apollo” with ABT in 1997, in February 2001 I saw him make his guest debut at the Kirov Ballet in the role. That was a memorable performance. He hadn’t had much rehearsal with the Kirov ballerinas, but the mood was considerably more convivial than what we saw Sunday afternoon. Mr. Stiefel and his ABT muses repeat their “Apollo” on November 2. I will be curious to see how they have settled into their roles and whether some of the tension has lifted.

The same cast will perform “Apollo” on November 2 (131 W. 55th Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues, 212-581-1212).