It may not have been perfect, but Monday night’s Youth America Grand Prix gala at City Center was an improvement on last year’s. The international stars were fewer in number, but they seemed somewhat better acquainted, and the program chosen was less ambitious.

Youth America Grand Prix was founded in 1999 by husband and wife Gennadi and Larissa Saveliev. In this ballet competition, the winners receive scholarships to schools around the world and sometimes are offered contracts by professional companies. At the company’s annual gala, finalists and prize-winners perform along with an international roster of leading dancers. The students perform in the first half of the Gala program; on Monday night they performed some standard solos from classical repertory, along with novelty numbers that were very odd indeed. Satyrs, elves, and a Lolita from Ipanema all made appearances. An excerpt from Ponchielli’s “Dance of the Hours” was relatively sedate by comparison. The casts were all well drilled. The best thing was the closing défilé, which didn’t strain for effect but simply put together all the contestants in pleasing patterns.

The adults took over for the second half, the highlight of which was the New York return of the Paris Opera’s Aurélie Dupont and Manuel Legris. Three years ago, they were magical dancing Balanchine’s “Sonatine” as guest artists at New York City Ballet. They’re a great partnership: He gives her drive, and she softens his edge. He’s a little more naked in his desire to please and arouse an audience, but his theatrical intelligence makes him believable in any guise. They enhance each other and submerge themselves in whatever they are dancing.

The pieces they chose to perform this evening, however, were not great. Jiri Kylian’s “Petite Mort” consisted of wiggles, squiggles, straddles, and cantilevers, while in the “Black Pas de Deux” from John Neumeier’s “La Dame aux camélias,” Ms. Dupont entered in veil and ballgown and proceeded to be undressed by Mr. Legris to torrents of Chopin piano.

The warhorse “Corsaire” pas de deux was danced by the Royal Ballet’s Marianela Nunez and Thiago Soares, who are among the company’s sizable contingent of South American dancers. Although Ms. Nunez began her training in Argentina, she seems to have entirely absorbed the canonical Royal grand ballerina manner: ladylike, yet slightly bubbleheaded; amenable to a hint of possible wantonness.

It’s not uncommon for the ballerina dancing this pas de deux to perform a solo lifted from Minkus ballets. Ms. Nunez chose to dance Gamzatti’s variation from “La Bayadère,” which showed off her beautiful jump. She also performed remarkable fouettés in the coda. The Brazilian Mr. Soares gave a highly efficient performance, but it could not be called distinguished.

Also from Brazil were Cecilia Kerche and Vitor Luiz, stars of the national company in Rio. They danced a duet from “La Esmeralda,” featuring what was claimed to be the original choreography of Jules Perrot, who created the ballet in 1844. This performance contained a significant quotient of flouncing and flirting that is not my ideal of balletic deportment, but it nevertheless seemed authentic and persuasive as rendered by these two excellent dancers.

In contrast to these couples, NYCB’s Nikolaj Hübbe and ABT’s Paloma Herrera belonged to the probably one-time-only school of gala partnerships. The pas de deux from Balanchine’s “Rubies” contains a lot of difficult partnering, and Ms. Herrera took a fall at one point. She can get visibly put out when things go wrong onstage. When the audience applauded her second-position turns shortly afterward, she tossed a flirtatious look over her shoulder as she exited, seeming to show gratitude that she had been “forgiven.” But Ms. Herrera didn’t let herself get too rattled, and her performance gave every indication that this could be an excellent role for her. Mr. Hübbe, on the other hand, is an old hand in this pas de deux.

Other Gala performers included Mr. Saveliev, who is a soloist at American Ballet Theatre; ABT’s Xiomara Reyes, Isabella Boylston (a Grand Prix alumna), and David Hallberg; Complexions Contemporary Ballet; MOMIX; the Stuttgart Ballet’s Alicia Amatriain and Jason Reilly; NYCB’s Ashley Bouder and the San Francisco Ballet’s Joseph Phillips (he’s also a Grand Prix alum). Desmond Richardson served as master of ceremonies.