As part of its OFF Center series, Residential Arts, a program of the Fine Arts Center of the University of Massachusetts, will present Kota Yamazaki and rosy Co. on Friday, September 28, and Saturday, September 29, in the Kendall Studio Theater at 8 pm.

"Every part of Japanese dancer Kota Yamazaki's body seems to move in a different direction and then instantly goes another way," writes Sara Jarrett in Dance Spirit magazine. "His feet, protected from the floor by only a pair of thin white socks, move as if on hot coals, so fast and with such fluidity, you wonder if he has any muscles at all."

Yamazaki is the founder and choreographer of rosy Co., a Tokyo-based dance company that changes members to accommodate each project Yamazaki takes on. Says Jarrett, "[The company's] overall makeup is usually the same: A conglomeration of as many different types of movers as Yamazaki can find. In fact, he scouts for dancers with unique capabilities and then creates pieces to play up their strengths."

Described as "butoh in hyperspeed," the company's style is eclectic. It blends butoh, a dance form that arose in post-World War II Japan and is characterized by dancers exposing their inner states through extremely slow and distorted movements, with ballet, hip-hop, and contemporary dance. Of rosy Co.'s founder dance critic Sako Ueno has written, "Yamazaki himself is the style." The company made its debut in the United States in the summer of 2000 at the Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival in Lee, Massachusetts.

Yamazaki began to draw worldwide attention after being nominated for the international choreographic competition of Bagnolet in 1994. He creates new group works, in which he performs solo and duo repertories, that are presented in Tokyo annually. In Yamazaki's training, one can see the origins of his melting-pot style. The choreographer studied butoh under Akira Kasai beginning in 1977; classic ballet under Hirofumi Inoue starting in 1981; and with Daniel Larrieu, the French contemporary choreographer, at the Centre National de Danse Contemporaire d'Angers beginning in 1989. Yamazaki began to choreograph intensively after returning to his homeland from France in the early 1990s. His works include "Shikakere ba Ethique" (1992), "Reflection" (1993), "Inflection" (1994), "Traffic" (1994), "Shasen" (1995), "Shakuri"(1995), "What's Wrong?" (1996), "Night Field" (1997), and "Chinoise Flower" (1999).

Tickets are $12 for general admission and $5 for Five College students. For tickets and information, call the Fine Arts Center Box Office at 545-2511 or 1-800-999-UMAS. Tickets will also be available at the door.