Dance - Strange brew

We’ve learned to expect these ecstasy-and-Viagra mixed medications from the folks at the Zoetic Dance Ensemble. Last year they were dancing on the climbing walls at the Rock Club. This summer, Zoetic choreography taught mass murder a few new steps in the Dad’s Garage production of Carrie White: The Musical. And just a couple of weeks ago — I have this on good authority — they were seen at Ballroom Studios consorting with choreographers from New York City in a heathen ritual they called The Monster Project, which, like SPIN, is a part of First Glance Atlanta.

In SPIN, co-directors Melanie Lynch-Blanchard and Candess Giyan have brought together the Atlanta underground’s axis of avant-garde. DJ R. St. James, of Fountainhead fame, spins between dances performed by both Zoetic and the dance troupe Gathering Wild. Frankie Lopez, the subMedia film freak, is doing his own visual spins with a series of extempore projections.

After partnering with washtubs to a bluegrass beat in “The Weight of Water” and going techno with traditional African music and modern moves in “Flying by Fixes,” Zoetic will bring all the elements together in “Continuum Groove,” an improvisational fusion of live-mixed music, projections and dance. Meanwhile, Gathering Wild will explore the evolutions of love in “Awakening Heart,” a classical piece with a driving carnal beat.

In lesser hands, an amalgam like this could easily devolve into a nihilist mess, but Zoetic has the aesthetic maturity and technical sophistication to hold this crazy happening together. It’s a strange, strange brew they’ve got on tap that should make for a damn good buzz.

Zoetic Dance Ensemble presents SPIN Nov. 1-2 at 8 p.m. at Eyedrum Art and Music Gallery, 290 MLK Drive. $12. 678-966-0253.??