This Saturday, 7 p.m. at Bedlam Lowertown

If you follow contemporary dance, you need to be at Bedlam Lowertown this Saturday night. The collaborative duo Fire Drill (Billy Mullaney and Emily Gastineau) are presenting “an evening of pop-up experimental choreography,” bringing together dance-makers from Portland, Ore., Oakland, Calif. and the Twin Cities. “Absolute Bliss” will feature performances by emerging West Coast and Midwestern choreographers. From Portland, you’ll see Keyon Gaskin, Allie Hankins, Takahiro Yamamoto and Lucy Lee Yim. The lineup continues with Oakland’s Maryanna Lachman & Sam Hertz, plus SuperGroup and Aniccha Arts from Minneapolis.

Bedlam’s is an open performance space, and the artists aim to make the most of that expansiveness with a series of dance works that “unfold throughout the evening.” Tickets are reasonable: $10 in advance, $15 at the door. Expect improvisational movement, interactive invitation and unexpected use of image and sound from these performers. I suspect there will be some playfulness, too – SuperGroup, from the Twin Cities, is known for making smart, irreverent dances.

This could well be the first of several such cross-country collaborations by these artists. Fire Drill and the guest performers of Absolute Bliss are putting together an “emerging, artist-driven touring network for contemporary performance.” (Full disclosure: I work with Gastineau in my day job with Mn Artists.)

“Absolute Bliss: West Coast & Midwest Choreography” will perform Saturday, November 15, 7 p.m. at Bedlam Lowertown, 213 East Fourth St., St. Paul. For more information, visit www.fire-drill.org.