Near the end of “Catch Her if You Can,” Maria Kochetkova’s new show at the Joyce Theater, the Russian-born ballerina addresses why she left San Francisco Ballet last year to go freelance. It was, “to do things I believe in and always wanted to do,” she declares.

Or rather, she types, since this final number of the program is mostly a conversation between her and the impish French choreographer Jérôme Bel, conducted via Facebook Messenger and projected on a screen.

The conversation seems to be a record of discussions that led to the piece, called “Masha Machine” after Ms. Kochetkova’s nickname. She shares some videos of past performances (we see these, too), and when Mr. Bel, in his brusque, flippant way, asks her to imagine her future, her answers are mainly about her present discontent. When he goads her further, she says she’s confused.

That’s the impression conveyed by the program as a whole: an accomplished artist at loose ends.

This production is of a common type. A star ballet dancer, tired of having roles chosen for her by some company director, chooses them herself, and thus gives us a self-portrait of her true sensibility, her taste. Often, the results betray a parochially rebellious, anything-but-tutus lack of discrimination.