Don't call it fusion.

While it might be hard to picture a gracious, 60-year-old North Indian classical dance master getting down with a freewheeling wunderkind from Bring In 'Da Noise, Bring In 'Da Funk, it was the universal allure of rhythm that first drew Pandit Chitresh Das and tapper Jason Samuels Smith to each other.

The two are teaming up for India Jazz Suites, an East-meets-West collaborative experiment that they'll perform for the first time Nov. 10-12 in San Francisco's Cowell Theater. It all started with a chance meeting at the American Dance Festival in 2004 where, according to both men, they clicked from the moment they met backstage.

"He was practicing in the hallway. He taps 24 hours a day," recalls Das, interviewed by phone at his hotel in New Delhi. "I was in my bare feet on the polished floor and whatever he was doing, I was trying to imitate it. He turned around and said, 'Man, what are you doing? How do you do that?'"

It was the first time that Smith had ever heard of the North Indian classical dance form called kathak, but he was immediately intrigued by the complex rhythms and patterns Das could produce with bare feet and five pounds of bells on his ankles. "After we took our bows at the end of the show, we would just find each other onstage and start jamming," Smith says. "It was automatic. We wouldn't have to say anything--just a little eye contact, and then the feet would take over."

Despite the 36-year difference in their ages, Das and Smith seem struck by the similarities that go beyond virtuoso noise-making. Improvisation and love of challenging musicality are hallmarks of both kathak and rhythm tap, but in both forms, the connection to heritage runs deep. In kathak it's the gurus who carefully pass down traditions to their students, while the tap world is infused with profound respect for the late Gregory Hines and old masters like Jimmy Slyde and Arthur Duncan.

Das, whose company is based in the Bay Area, has worked on collaborations before, notably in 1993, when he joined with flamenco artist Rosa Montoya and the late Congolese drumming master Malonga Casquelourd for A Journey through Dance. More recently, artists like Akram Khan and Rennie Harris have generated interest with choreography that melds kathak with modern, or West African dance with hip hop. However, both Das and Smith are quick to dispel any notion that what they're doing is "fusion."

Smith likens it to putting a puzzle together. How does a tap solo flow from a traditional Indian pranam? How can they fit together Indian instruments, like the tabla and sarangi, with jazz drumming?

"There will be a lot of spontaneous rhythmic exploration," Das says. "But we will be dancing our own systems: him improvising in his tradition, and me in mine. And then we try to understand each other." Smith adds, "I think it's a powerful message, showing that people from two different backgrounds can communicate. We want to show the world that anybody can do it, any age, any generation, any style, any class, any race, anything."

As he watches the sun rise over the Qutab Minar, the medieval minaret towering over New Delhi, halfway around the world, Das expresses similar sentiments. "Dance can bring people together, countries together, artists together, ancient and modern, mind and heart together. That is aananta--the ultimate happiness-the joy of dance."