© Schulman Brothers recent Morphoses reviews Morphoses at Sadler's Wells more Bruce Marriott reviews

One of the most eagerly anticipated premieres took place at the small but influential Vail International Dance Festival in the Rockies earlier this month and it was standing ovations all the way for choreographer Christopher Wheeldon. His new company, Morphoses, has little to do with tutus, princesses and done-down maidens and everything to do with new work and encouraging new, and old, audiences to see ballet as a very wide and modern art. Wheeldon, just 34, has been widely regarded as ballet's hottest choreographic property for some time and is obviously keen to lay down a new troupe in his own image rather than seek to run an established ballet company with all its good, and less good, traditions and headaches.

Although currently a "glorified pick-up company" (Wheeldon's words) he has huge plans in the next few years to make a 20-strong permanent company based in New York and with regular international touring. London features particularly where there is already an association with Sadler's Wells theatre.

Wheeldon's vision is to be in at the start of a new ballet and arts renaissance, as he told the Rocky Mountain News, " Morphoses refers to the formation of something. And that's what we are - we're a seed".

"I don't want to just be the Wheeldon Ballet or the Wheeldon Company," he said in a Denver Post reported interview, " because I want this to be sort of a crossroads, a meeting place for artists of all different media, not necessarily just focusing on choreography. ...I'll be looking for projects that will involve all sorts of different disciplines..."

At Vail he did what you'd expect: showed some of his greatest hits on some great dancers and pulled back the veil (sorry) on some new works still in development. And the Festival sent him and the company off with the best bon voyage anybody could wish for - a standing ovation for nearly every piece, according to reports.

Three days later at London's Coliseum it was rather different as the Bolshoi Ballet unveiled the UK premiere of their newly-acquired piece by Wheeldon, Elsinore. At the end a traditional audience notably managed only the politest of applause for a dark and moody meditation on Hamlet. It fared a little better with the critics but there was clearly a clash of styles and approach between Wheeldon and the Bolshoi to the point where some wondered if the piece would even be completed. The Ballet Boyz, always around the action it seems, actually had the nous to film Wheeldon working with the company and what should be a fascinating fly-on-the-wall documentary is scheduled to come out later this autumn.

The Vail and Bolshoi experiences underline the tensions in ballet and in its diverse audience. Ballet isn't cheap to do and founding a new 20-strong company out of nothing, to do challenging new work, and pay all its bills, is not straightforward or easy - much though fans and arts lovers long to see new things. But if anybody has the artistic sensibilities and talent to make it stack up Wheeldon certainly does.

Morphoses' second gig, lucky us, is at London's Sadler's Wells, from 19-23 September, and a stellar list of guest dancers has just been announced, drawing on stars from San Francisco, New York and London's Royal Ballet. The line-up includes Alexandra Ansanelli, Angel Corella, Gonzalo Garcia Wendy Whelan, Maria Kowroski, Alina Cojocaru and Johan Kobborg amongst others, and many will go just to catch dancers of such stature on the same stage. But the two programmes also feature some interesting works by Balanchine and William Forsythe as well as two Christopher Wheeldon premieres (previewed in Vail and hopefully finished by opening night).

A month later the new company will debut at City Center in New York and the line-up there features Darcey Bussell and Jonathan Cope. Both much-loved members of the Royal Ballet and now retired, this is probably the last chance to see them dance seriously together and in a beautiful piece - Tryst - that Wheeldon created on them too. New York is home town to the new company and I suspect there will be a warm and friendly reception for all. Perhaps a spot of transatlantic Christmas shopping might be in order for the well-heeled UK dance fan in October...