Collaboration breeds communication, especially with the sense of intimacy needed in dance. Choreographer Marius Petipa connected with Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Russia for "The Sleeping Beauty." Twentieth-century impresario Serge Diaghilev brought together the likes of Vaslav Nijinsky and Igor Stravinsky for "The Rite of Spring" in Paris. Martha Graham met up with the bold, clean lines of designer Isamu Noguchi in New York City, where they had a formidable long-term partnership.

But none of them ever imagined the instantaneous connection available along the highways and byways of the Internet. It makes for a grand global playing field that fuels today's artistic collaborations.

Attack Theatre's intrepid all-American trio of Michele de la Reza, Peter Kope and Dave Eggar began the old-fashioned way when they met the Japanese arts collective Nibroll at a festival in France in 2001.

They would never be the same.

Two years later the two groups produced "No-to: memory fades" via a series of e-mails and two major trips. The Attackers never forgot the bullet train, take-out sushi and vending machine beer they discovered in Japan between their performances there. They also never forgot the sense of artistic freedom they found.

It is a freedom that will be seen in the company's latest project, "Preserve and Pursue," which includes works by two major Japanese composers, at the New Hazlett Theater this weekend. "We were trying to blend a Western aesthetic with contemporary Japanese music," Kope says, although he admits that they had to overcome a dichotomy in the relationships that were produced on stage.

"Western thought combines everything into one idea for interpretation," according to Kope. "Now we're able to embrace the Eastern idea -- a lack of relationship in things that are occurring on stage at the same time. Walking into that conceptual place made creating these works much easier."

A peek inside the Attack creative mode lets the viewer discover how this company has remained at the forefront of the local dance scene during the past 10 years. Unlike repertory groups that bring in an assortment of choreographers, these dancers have consistently created their own movement, usually by posing questions about the subject material, then testing that as a platform from which to dive into the dance.

But how to keep that approach fresh?

During the past several years, they came to the conclusion that it would be best to do it through music. After all, de la Reza and Kope can frequently be found at the Pittsburgh Opera (this season in the upcoming "Aida") and the Pittsburgh Symphony in its holiday program. As musical director, Eggar would provide a band for pieces like "Games of Steel" or "This Ain't the Nutcracker."

"It might take us out of our comfort zone," offers de la Reza. "But we jump into these differing aesthetics whole-heartedly. From a musical perspective, it changes the movement physically."

So Eggar went on the hunt. A cellist and Juilliard grad, he cuts a wide musical swath, from the classical path of cellist Yo-Yo Ma to rock groups such as Coldplay and Bon Jovi. Right now he's working on a new jazz recording and composing an opera.

"Every time I've tried to do one thing, I'm unhappy," says Eggar. "I think that a variety of projects really cross-pollinates -- it hones different aspects of my skills."

A few years ago he had the opportunity to work closely with Somei Satoh, whom he calls "the greatest living Japanese composer," while playing in a quartet at Princeton University.

Satoh is known for "a very beautiful suspension of time," says Eggar. "Many of his pieces have incredibly slow tempo markings, but he helps the performer and the audience find this powerful inner stillness that's really emotive and expressive."

Eggar tentatively approached Satoh to compose a work for Attack Theatre. The venerable composer accepted and the result is "a really gorgeous spatial work" for Eggar, violinist Tom Chiu and pianist Doug Levine.

So while the Attack company began composing the dance, Satoh composed the music in a castle in Italy, giving the piece, called "Trapped," an international flair.

At about the same time, Eggar also attended a concert at Merkin Hall in New York that was featuring a Japan festival. There he met Miyuki Ito, a young Japanese composer Eggar calls "a kind of firecracker."

"She writes dynamic, loud music that mixes electronics with live instruments," explains Eggar. She came up with "Incantation of Wind and Fire," a work that integrates a cello solo with synthesizer in such a way that the audience is not always aware which is live and which is, well, Memorex.

Ito actually visited Pittsburgh last August with a fully formed musical idea to base her new sound approach on a traditional Japanese myth about Rajin, the god of thunder and lightning, and Fujin, the god of wind.

This particular tale is a fun fable that has been passed down from generation to generation in Japan. It centers around Rajin's dog, who could fall asleep in a bellybutton if the stomach was exposed. Of course, Rajin would have to awaken the dog and, well, the consequences could be disastrous -- or so young girls believed, so they kept their tummies carefully covered.

A trio of Attack women used it as a point of departure to interpret the traditional fable in a very contemporary way. Physical cues will follow musical cues, like the sharp edges of the lightning or the swirling of the wind.

Eggar will be seated in the center of the stage on a platform that will be encased by a 30-foot-high cylinder to connect to a mythical, god-like feeling. A young girl will recall the words of her grandmother, which will cascade down the cylindrical scrim, and write them in her journal.

So the premiere, now called "A Furious Wind," was created from an existing score, and Ito will come in for the performances to coordinate the electronic overlay. Satoh's "Trapped," on the other hand, was created separately on two different continents.

"They both have aspects of traditional Japanese music that contribute to their melodic material and to their sense of structure," Eggar notes. "However, the way they handle them is dramatically opposed -- the sound world could not be more different."

He points out that the young Ito has created a piece that is intensely masculine, while the older Satoh has written a fragile and lyrical work, adding, "but what's truly exciting about the concert is that it's going to give us this incredible example of the range of Japanese music."