For the last couple of years the Balletboyz have been giving strong hints that they are thinking of retiring. Michael Nunn and William Trevitt are only just over 40, and last seen they certainly still looked pretty fit.

But in their mission to make dance more understandable and appealing, they have created a new, all- male company, to carry their banner forward. This is Balletboyz — The Talent. What we have here is the dance equivalent of a boy-band: nine appealing and talented young men —selected via a series of long and arduous auditions — turned from scratch into a dance company.

But, as in the music world, looking good isn’t enough on its own; you’ve got to have good material, and in this fascinating triple bill we saw both the talents of the dancers and also the limitations of presenting three works for an all-male cast. In their own performances, the Boyz frequently appeared in the company of Oxana Panchenko, one of the most svelte and glamorous dancers to be seen on any stage. In other words one third of their act was female, and Oxana’s presence allowed the Boyz and their choreographers a much wider and more colourful palette of emotional variations and physical movement.

Torsion was a good choice for introducing us to six of the cast. Originally made by Russell Maliphant as a duet for Nunn and Trevitt, he has re-worked it as a piece for six dancers. Happily, they do not spend all their time duplicatiing each others’ steps, and there are some eye-catching moments, for example a much repeated lift with one dancer, stiff as a corpse, pointing his feet to the rafters. Miguel Estevez’s double circuit of the stage spinning on his knees is an extraordinary sight — Toulouse-Lautrec on speed! — and a contemporary take on the leaping circuits of classical dance.

After the crashing, whistling, screaming soundtrack by Richard English for Torsion, Keaton Henson’s gentle folk songs came as a relief to the ear in Alpha. Paul Roberts’s piece, beautifully dressed in designer rags by Shelina Somani, is an abstract work with hints of a contemporary Rite of Spring about it. Here we see again the technical excellence of the cast, with some daring lifts and throws.

The most powerful piece is Void, with the cast as hooded gang members in a depressing night-time urban jungle, brilliantly created with the use of film. Here, for the first time, I felt some sort of intense reaction between the dancers.

n Ballet Boyz — The Talent are at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre next Tuesday (telephone box office, 0844 871 7607, or online, www.ambassadortickets.com/ aylesbury) and at Sadler’s Wells from March 29 to April 2.