Galas are something that ballet dancers shouldn’t do too often: The very nature of the spectacle encourages the performers to become specialty acts exploiting their most marketable and readily accessible strengths. That said, there were some genuinely distinguished performances (and the inevitable depredations of jet lag) at this year’s Stars of the 21st Century gala Monday night at the New York State Theater. The event is presented annually by the Canadian-based Russian impresario team of wife-and-husband Nadia and Solomon Tencer.

The Act II pas de deux of “Giselle” is often not a wow with a gala audience, which prefers something less quiet. So it proved Monday night. But as danced by the Bolshoi Ballet’s Svetlana Lunkina and Nikolai Tsiskaridze, it was well worth watching. Mr. Tsiskaridze ‘s technique may not be as strong as it once was, and he was a little skittish, but his flamboyance was under control. He was present on stage in the right degree and the right key. Ms. Lunkina appears frequently at the Tencer galas. Though she is not a virtuoso, she has sufficient technique for “Giselle.” And she is that rarity on the ballet stage: a true lyric ballerina.

The couple returned for “La Rose Malade,” Roland Petit’s dreamy and drifty duet set to a Mahler adagio and perhaps intended as a pendant to the fin-de-siecle “Spectre de la Rose.” Ms. Lunkina was dressed in pink chiffon, so I guess she was the rose. The duet itself becomes a little etiolated since it goes on too long. Mr. Tsiskaridze was a pillar of strong support, and Ms. Lunkina’s gorgeous line and adagio texture were riveting.

Ms. Lunkina made a third, unscheduled appearance, replacing Myriam Ould-Braham of the Paris Opera in the “La Sylphide” pas de deux opposite the Royal Ballet’s David Makhateli. Ms. Lunkina demonstrated her understanding of a contrasting facet of Romanticism from “Giselle.” Here she was no specter but an enchanting and importunate supernatural entity. Mr. Makhateli was quite good, but ragged edges in his epaulement diminished a bit the authenticity of his Bournonville style.

Newcomer Daniil Simkin of the Vienna Opera Ballet also made three appearances Monday night. Mr. Simkin exemplifies the current vogue for very young dancers who look even younger. To some extent it’s a perennial vogue, and ballet perpetually capitalizes on the thrills of the prodigy. According to the program, Mr. Simkin was born in 1987, but he’s very childlike: small, slight, and cute in an urchin-like fashion. He performed a solo in each half of the program. One was created by his father, Dmitrij Simkin, and one was by Ben Van Cauwenbergh. Both blended acrobatic ballet stunts with actual acrobatics, and left no doubt about his hypertechnical and hyper-flexible capacities. He closed the program by partnering the Royal Ballet’s Roberta Marquez in the “Don Quixote” pas de deux, which had been the final number on last year’s program as well.

Ms. Marquez is a distinguished ballerina, but she also is tiny, and she is better with a taller partner; somehow, next to Mr. Simkin, she looked less significant than usual. The husband-and-wife partnership of Anastasia and Denis Matvienko was seen this year to better advantage than at last year’s 21st-century event. Both Matvienkos originate from the State Ballet in Kiev, Ukraine. Last year, Mr. Matvienko was also dancing as a principal guest performer with the Bolshoi. Since then, both have become full-time members of the newly re-organized Mikhailovsky Theatre in St. Petersburg, where I saw them dance “La Bayadere” last October. In both her Nikiya in St. Petersburg and dancing the “Corsaire” pas de deux on Monday night, Ms. Matvienko brought a more elegant manner to her performing than was visible in her earlier gala appearances in New York. In “Corsaire,” Mr. Matvienko’s technique was titanium caliber. As they did last year, they also performed Edward Clug’s “Radio & Juliet,” which is a strobe-lit and spasmodic accompaniment to music by Radiohead.

A return appearance from last year’s gala was made by the Berlin Ballet’s Ronald Savkovic. Last year, he danced solos of own invention; this year, it was adagios of his own invention, partnering his Berlin colleague Shoko Nakamura. They’re a good partnership, and his choreography was gimmicky but acceptable. Nevertheless, one wanted to see what they could do with better material.

Munich Ballet’s Lucia Lacarra and Cyril Pierre are an expertly honed partnership, and they frequently perform spectacular adagios at the Tencer galas. This year, they did Mr. Petit’s “Thais” pas de deux, and John Neumeier’s Act III duet from his “Lady of the Camellias,” which comes complete with coughing and copulating.

Monday night’s program opened with Balanchine’s “Tchaikovsky pas de deux,” which was also performed at last year’s gala. This year it was danced by New York City Ballet’s Maria Kowroski and American Ballet Theatre’s David Hallberg. The technical fireworks in the variation and coda of this pas de deux aren’t really Ms. Kowroski’s thing and, as if she realized that, she seemed to be taking extra care to make a grand impression in the opening adagio. And she certainly did, and she also did acceptably in the fireworks that followed. Mr. Hallberg had some great moments both in the air and on the ground.