Interested in researching Butoh, a post-World War II performance art, Acogny visited Japan in 2000, met Butoh-master Yamazaki, and invited him to work with her. He visited three times, teaching her dancers Butoh techniques and immersing himself in Senegalese dance traditions.

Rise:Rose, which also resulted from that research, received its Philadelphia premiere Friday and Saturday at the Painted Bride. Yamazaki danced with Michou Szabo and Mina Nishimura to make a short but engrossing evening of fusion dance fathered by the often grotesque and mysterious Butoh, but mothered by traditional and ancient African steps.

The concerts were the culmination of a four-week residency exchange between Charles Anderson and Yamazaki hosted by the Bride called trxfr->transfer. Anderson's dancetheatre X performed Yamazaki's In-Ou on the weekend of April 18.

Szabo and Nishimura danced with intense focus, but Yamazaki is definitely the fluid in the company. His solos were pure mastery. Like the dancers in the piece he choreographed for Anderson's company the previous week, he moved his body in Butoh-gone-manic ways, flinging limbs about as if he had no joints.

Also effective was a trio started by Nishimura and joined by the two men in a diagonal line behind her. Marching mechanically, they created striking rhythms by stomping their feet but barely moving out of place.

Yamazaki made excellent musical choices from several sources. A 1970s piano piece by Gavin Bryars, "White's SS," inspired the most lyrical beauty. Szabo and Nishimura crawl stealthily like feral animals stalking prey, but instead of pouncing, melt into the floor.

Stephen Crawford designed the spare set with a large, cloud-like canopy of crushed paper suspended on one side. In another corner, water dripped slowly into a pan filled with blazing-red flowers. Depending on the lighting, it could be fire or water. So counting the floor as the earth, Yamazaki represented all the ancient elements and seemed to be saying, whether we are Japanese, African or any ethnicity: These are the elements that motivate all of us.