PERFORMANCE ART REVIEW : Charles Dennis Makes L.A. Debut

New York performance artist Charles Dennis made his first Los Angeles appearance with two contrasting solos of differing impact Wednesday at Highways in Santa Monica.

His “cityanimal” chronicles a day in the life of an urban dweller, the cityanimal. It is divided into halves, each beginning with the same taped speech of the creature’s need to go out after being cooped up in his apartment all day. Venturing out, however, brings frustration in sexual pursuit and encounters with violence, real or implicit. Ultimately, he confesses to thriving on the danger. Well, good for him. But what does that do for anybody else?

A lean, compact dancer, Dennis worked in graceful, vigorous, demented spurts of tai chi and karate movements. But the narrative had many holes and dead spots, and the character never established any emotional connection with the audience.

More successful was Dennis’ “2 X 2 X 4,” in which he played a serious version of kids’ games with building blocks (14 2x4’s)--cradling them, cuddling them, carrying them; pretending they’re snowshoes, surfboards or ski poles; hoping from one to another as if crossing ice floes on a river; putting them together to form V shapes, a wall or a fort.

Sometimes the blocks fell unintentionally; more often, Dennis kicked apart his own constructions, suggesting cycles of building and destruction.

Certainly a serious tone was introduced by juxtaposing bare skin (Dennis was shirtless) with hard wood textures. But the imaginative play held interest longer than did metaphoric implications.

Dennis will repeat the program tonight.