If New York is still the dance capital of the world, then the foreign dancers in the annual Stars of the 21st Century gala at the New York State Theater would have done well to bring their A-games. On Monday night, the international guests had — on the whole —not taken the trouble to be in the best shape, or wear costumes that were appropriate, or pick interesting repertory, or dance on a level of taste and style that would satisfy a discerning audience. Gala audiences are not necessarily the most discriminating, but surely these performers can assume that enough people in the audience would hold them to a particular standard.

Last year, the gala offered superb performing — replete with some gala vagaries, of course — by great dancers, among them the Bolshoi’s Svetlana Lunkina and Serge Filin, and the Paris Opera’s Emmanuel Thibault. Nothing reached their level Monday night, and the contemporary pieces danced were execrable choreographically.

This year it was the home team, New York City Ballet’s Ashley Bouder and Joaquin De Luz, which came closest to framing its pyrotechnics within the parameters of legitimate dance expression. On pointe, Ms. Bouder towers over Mr. De Luz, and when they first appeared, in the Liberty Bell and El Capitan pas de deux from Balanchine’s “Stars and Stripes,” they looked like a comic novelty act — and certainly a note of parody is implicit in this choreography. But they wielded authentic firepower in their solos, and in Balanchine’s “Tarantella,” which they performed later in the evening, there’s almost no formal partnering and the height disparity never came into play.

Monday night’s gala marked the New York debut of Leonid Sarafanov, amour fou of the Kirov ballet administration. Since the now 24-year-old Mr. Sarafanov left Kiev and joined the Kirov in 2002, the company has stunted the career of one male dancer after another in order to allow Mr. Sarafanov hegemony in roles he’s not yet prepared to dance or to which he’s simply not fit. On Monday he danced Balanchine’s “Tchaikovsky Pas de deux,” and the Grand Pas de Deux from Petipa’s “Don Quixote.” Unlike so much of his Kirov repertory, he’s potentially well suited to both of these pieces, and his performances showed some improvement over his past efforts.

His arms were more elegant than they have been. Some of his jumps had a metallic brilliance, and he demonstrated a clean academic finish to his steps a good deal of the time. But his mind and his muscle reflexes still seem to conceive of ballet as an aggregate of coldly executed stunts. When he stumbled at the end of his “Tchaikovsky” solo, it seemed to be a result of the unmodulated overdrive he applies to almost every step.

His partner, the Kirov’s Olesia Novikova, had toned down some of the Soviet soubrettisms that marred her Juliet with the Kirov in Washington, D.C., last month, but she still came across Monday as a mannered, calculating minx. She has a very strong technique, but she overworked her extension incessantly, as did Mr. Sarafanov some of the time. These two pas de deux suited these young dancers’ extroverted temperaments, but require added sophistication and seasoning to succeed.

Also in need of guidance are the husband-and-wife team of Anastasia and Denis Matvienko. Both were trained and continue to dance in Kiev, and Mr. Matvienko also dances with the Bolshoi. Husband and wife each have sufficient technique and aplomb to justify leading roles, but they lack style. In Vaganova’s “Diana and Acteon” pas de deux, Ms. Matvienko overdid almost everything, but her brass suited the huntress goddess persona. Mr. Matvienko wore a Tarzan tunic that was just unspeakable; some of his tricks were splendid and some weren’t. The Matvienkos returned for Edward Clug’s “Radio & Juliet,” a pointless exercise in Euro-shlock, a genre that was also represented by the two solos danced and choreographed by Ronald Savkovic of the Berlin Ballet.

Although the Royal Ballet’s Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg dance together constantly, they don’t bring out the best in each other. They gave a gave a semicanned and certainly sentimental rendition of Kenneth MacMillan’s tawdry bedroom adagio from “Manon,” but were more alive in Kim Brandstrup’s “Footnote,” a silly piece in which each one kept getting on the other’s nerves.

Complexions Contemporary Ballet’s Desmond Richardson is a perennial feature at the Stars of the 21st Century gala, and it would be good if he started to pick more varied pieces for his appearances. On Monday he danced two solos by Dwight Rhoden — one to Beethoven and one to Noel Coward — that were very reminiscent of his contributions to previous year’s galas.

Benjamin Pech of the Paris Opera and Sylvia Azzoni of the Hamburg Ballet danced two superheated adagios by John Neumeir from “The Lady of the Camellias,” and “Romeo and Juliet.” Both adagios are laced with hair-raisingly precarious lifts, and the pair managed to spark some authentic Latin smolder.