Works by Stephanie Lake and Ma Bo. Queanbeyan Performing Arts Centre, NSW, November 7.

New works by Australia’s Stephanie Lake and China’s Ma Bo make up a double bill where similarities are much more obvious than differences. It’s not that the pieces look particularly alike (apart from an aspect of their endings) or have a common theme. Far from it. The sense of unity comes from the wonderfully vivid dancers of Expressions Dance Company and Beijing Dance/LTDX brought together for this project.

There are 20 in all, a truly luxurious number in contemporary dance, and all of them dance in both pieces. EDC’s close connection with the Chinese contemporary dance world, developed over the past four years, is one of its strong suits.

Lake happily acknowledges that Auto Cannibal, which opens the program, bears the strong imprint of her earlier works (hence the title). It certainly has Lake’s invigorating attack and her powerful mix of minute detail and bodies pushed to extremes, and is danced to an electronic score by Robin Fox as is customary in Lake’s work.

Dressed similarly in black shorts with white tops (costumes are by Xing Yameng), the dancers crackle with energy. They are like electric charges combining, repulsing and recombining to make something fascinatingly new. Lake brilliantly corrals this large group into a beautifully structured dance that leaves you wanting more.

Ma’s Encircling Voyage is a quieter, more interior drama built around cycles of life, danced to music by David Darling that is essentially western in structure but with some eastern touches. Expressions of sorrow, grief and sometimes anger are more evident than those of fulfilment, although there is communal strength. In this work the dancers are also dressed alike (by Wang Yan), this time in loose-fitting patterned smocks. The active, sporty atmosphere of Auto Cannibal gives way to one of ritual.

Dancers form a tight group, walking with a hand on the shoulder of the one in front as if unable to see the way ahead by themselves; benches are placed on their ends to resemble tall tombstones; a woman enters reading a book and appears totally unaware of her surroundings; two people sitting on a bench are joined by a third who has been moving frenetically but is now calm, included and soothed by their touch.

The Beijing dancers significantly outnumber those from Expressions, which has a complement of just six. No matter. The group coheres as if it has been together for five years rather than the five weeks it took to create the works. On a local note, it’s terrific to see Sydney Dance Company alumni Richard Cilli, Bernhard Knauer and Josie Weise back on stage as members of Expressions. (Artistic director of Expressions, Amy Hollingsworth, was formerly SDC’s dance director.)

There is one small niggle, encapsulated by the closing imagery in both works that visually ties them together, intentionally or not. Encircling Voyage ends with a solemn evocation of death and rebirth accompanied by clouds of white dust. Auto Cannibal also finishes in a shower of white, this time of feathers floating down to envelop a tightly packed group of men and women moving joyously. The order of performance could do with a rethink.

Now at Brisbane’s Queensland Performing Arts Centre until November 16.