Morphoses, Sadler's Wells, London

Christopher Wheeldon's Morphoses is still reaching for an identity. Launched last year, with much fanfare about innovation in ballet, this transatlantic company lacked variety. Morphoses still comes across as a grander version of the stripped-down troupes dancers arrange in their summer holidays.

Morphoses has no permanent dancers. It draws on other companies, particularly the Royal Ballet and New York City Ballet. Wheeldon has a broader repertory this year, mixing new and recent choreography with Frederick Ashton and Jerome Robbins classics.

Yet the strongest thing on this programme is still Polyphonia, created for the NYCB in 2001. Four couples dance to a selection of Ligeti piano pieces, from an intricate opening to sleek solos and pas de deux. Beatriz Stix-Brunell floats through her duet with Craig Hall, arms held wide as she drifts on pointe. Wendy Whelan is strong in the most elaborate numbers.

Ashton's Monotones II is wonderful, but very hard to bring off. This serene trio needs pure line and clean unison, but this tense performance kept breaking the flow. My neighbour hissed in astonishment as Maria Kowroski was lifted from her folded position on the floor, ending in a supported pose, leg stretched past her ear. But it didn't look easy. Kowroski, Rubinald Pronk and Edward Watson come from different companies: they have different ideas on how to hold their hands, curve their arms. Robbins's Other Dances is better, as Tiler Peck and Gonzalo Garcia bounce through the Chopin mazurkas.

Stravinsky's Pulcinella is a lovely score that resists having ballets made to it. Wheeldon's new Commedia falls into the usual trap: it's both too specific and too general. The dancers are in costume, with diamond-patterned tights, ruffs and masks – but they aren't individualised characters. Commedia is strongest when it sticks to pure dancing. There's a lively duet for Leanne Benjamin and Beatriz Stix-Brunell. Benjamin and Watson circle each other in a romantic pas de deux. It's sentimental, but has pretty, scampering lifts.

Wheeldon is clearly trying to reach new audiences, to reshape his company, but still finding out how to do it.