That there’s now an all-male version of Swan Lake with blokes swimming past in feather tutus tells us something about the recent history of ballet.

In the former Soviet Union it was conservative to a fault - no celebrated counterpart of Merce Cunningham - and what the UK now gets from its annual tours is hidebound classical tradition freed but not changed by perestroika.

This three-day appearance by the Siberians, sharing Christmas/New Year duties in the capital with the Russian National Ballet, was not so much a case of ‘what you see is what you get’ as ‘what you see is what you should reasonably expect’.

It’s reduced, it’s cramped by touring exigencies and it’s a crowd-pleaser. But you’d be a curmudgeon not to enjoy it. These people know exactly what they’re doing.

Allowing for the relatively shallow St David’s Hall stage, the set pieces are a delight, despite an occasional lack of unanimity in the corps de ballet. Marius Petipa’s original choreography to Tchaikovsky’s surpassing music is interestingly tweaked by company artistic director Sergei Bobrov.

The investment is enough to guarantee high accomplishment, and not just in the great act one pas de deux between Odette (Natalia Bobrova) and the Prince (Nikolay Chevychelov) and its connection with the doom-laded regimentation of swans and cygnets.

In fact, all the principal roles, especially the costumed cameos, are charming and sure-footed, thanks in large measure to conductor Anatoly Chepurnoy’s ability to get the most out of a decimated pit band.