A Tjimur Dance Theatre production, presented by the Vancouver International Dance Festival. At the Vancouver Playhouse on Friday, March 29. Continues until March 30

Serene, subdued, and languid are words often used to describe the dance that comes out of Asia. They were terms that could be applied to the work of Taiwan’s Legend Lin Dance Theatre when it brought the mesmerizing, dreamlike The Eternal Tides to the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival last year. But they are not at all the descriptives you’d use for Taiwan’s Tjimur Dance Theatre.

Passion, pure joy, and raw emotion emanate from the stage in the company’s aptly titled Varhung—Heart to Heart. Through driving movement that grows out of the haunting songs, the dance work builds to a physically pummelling climax. By turns uplifting and devastating, it made for an inspiring end to the Vancouver International Dance Festival.

The feel ofVarhung reflects the culture it celebrates. Tjimur draws from the traditions of Taiwan’s Indigenous Paiwan people, but in the most abstract and contemporary-feeling way possible. The ancient weaves easily into modern choreography here, the score a mix of pulsing electroacoustic music and the sounds of nature (think rain and crickets).

The flowing choreography is based on the movements of the shell-ginger harvest so integral to the Paiwan people. At times the five dancers rock rhythmically together, rooted to the ground and swaying like the grassy fronds farmed in their mountainous region of Taiwan. That repeating groove builds to a sweaty test of endurance. Other times, they move as a throbbing, single, sculptural organism or break out in their own convulsing, cathartic solos.

Amid it all, their wailing songs, often presented in call and response between the men and the women, echo through the hall. Even if you don't know what their words mean literally, you can somehow feel what they’re expressing, whether it’s almost unspeakable yearning or unfettered happiness.

The troupe’s boundless energy comes across clearly too, the standing O proving nothing was lost in translation in this warm heart-to-heart from across the Pacific.