Nude descending to rubber chickens

Maria La Ribot is a carrot-topped, Buster Keaton-faced dancer who likes to stand naked before donning a series of props or outlandish costumes for theatrical vignettes, comic and otherwise, that may have some deeper significance for the cognoscenti.

A Spaniard based in London, she presented “Mas distinguidas,� the second of three evenings of such solos -- so far -- Wednesday at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica. She will appear there in the third collection, “Still Distinguished,� once tonight and twice Saturday night.

At the serious end of the scale, she appeared trapped in a folding chair, wearing a “For Sale� sign around her neck. Presumably because there were no buyers, she slowly backed up against the rear wall and collapsed on the floor, all the while slapping the seat of the chair against her abdomen with increasing, punishing force. It must be fraught with meaning.

At the comic end, she put on, took off and manipulated plastic raingear while reading an absurd instruction manual for an appliance that turned out to be the dancer herself. In another vignette, she parodied a spiritual guru by announcing instructions that turned out to be variants of the same thing -- “Now we are going to do one minute of reflection ... of contemplation ... of meditation ... of silence.�

These were the highlights of a short but tedious evening. The low point was a vaudeville routine in which she grabbed a rubber chicken, said she didn’t know what to do with it and threw it against the wall. Actually, La Ribot ended several segments by hurling a prop or costume against the wall. Maybe she figured that with enough tries, something would stick.

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Maria La Ribot

Where: Highways Performance Space, 1651 18th St., Santa Monica

When: Tonight at 8:30, and Saturday, 8:30 and 10 p.m.

Price: $18

Contact: (310) 315-1459