A Vancouver International Dance Festival presentation. At the Roundhouse Community Centre on Friday, March 23. No remaining performances

AURA Dance Theatre is Lithuania's only modern-dance company, but it hasn't suffered for a lack of competition or peers. In a mixed bill at the Vancouver International Dance Festival, AURA proved it's on par with any troupe from Canada.

Local choreographer Barbara Bourget created the night's first piece, Tabula Rasa , which she dedicated to her late sister, who was confined to a wheelchair after a car crash in her early 20s. The nine performers never wavered in their solid execution of Bourget's heartfelt tribute.

In the work's first part, the dancers were lithe and unified. Their bodies were dusted in white chalk, an aesthetic Bourget borrows from butoh , the style she has long specialized in with the company she cofounded, Kokoro Dance. Moving to the beautifully sorrowful strings of Estonian composer Arvo Pí¤rt's Tabula Rasa , the performers embodied grace.

Then suddenly there was chaos. The dancers clustered together and transformed their bodies into squiggles, bending up and down, whipsawing their arms in all directions, and tossing their heads wildly. The next instant, they moved in agonizing slow motion. Between gestures that were alternately gangly, twitchy, athletic, elegant, or limp, the performers reached out in a recurring symbol of hope.

The dancers demonstrated strong technique, sinking into deep squats while balancing on the balls of their feet then shifting effortlessly to steps inspired by classical ballet. Although Bourget is best known for butoh, which emerged from postwar Japan, she deserves just as much respect for her versatility and ability to create such compelling contemporary movement.

All physical accomplishments aside, the work had an undeniable emotional impact. To close, Bourget brought the work full circle, back to a state of grace with eight dancers at rest. The remaining one, however, turned in slow circles while jerking her head from side to side, illustrating that sense of being lost yourself when you lose someone you love. The dancers so convincingly conveyed Bourget's grief that Tabula Rasa made my heart ache.

AURA showed a different side in Aseptic Zone or Lithuanian Songs . Choreographed by company artistic director Birute Letukaite, the powerful ensemble piece explored oppression. Soviet rule of Lithuania ended in 1990, and yet, as Letukaite explained in her program notes, other forms of domination have since emerged.

Throughout the work, a male dancer marched military-style around the perimeter of the stage along planks of white light. As oompah music blared in the background, the others pounded out the kind of physically charged movement that brought to mind early Holy Body Tattoo: wearing kneepads, they tumbled across the floor, launched their bodies straight up in the air, then hurled themselves to the ground again with indefatigable energy. These everymen and women were clearly determined to keep on going no matter who was watching over them–or trying to hold them back.

Whether illustrating solemnity or solidarity, AURA delivered a performance that was a VIDF highlight.