PROGRAMME
Since graduating in 2003 from the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse, François Chaignaud has collaborated with numerous choreographers (Alain Buffard, Boris Charmatz, Emmanuelle Huynh and Gilles Jobin, among others). Since the creation of his first piece in 2004, he has taken up a multiplicity of roles as dancer, choreographer, singer, actor, historian, and cabaret artist. His work – which aims for dance as an expression delving into the porosity and potential of bodies – was characterised early on by the interweaving of singing and dancing (Думи мої, 2013). Having a degree in history, he nourishes his art with in-depth research. The historical depth reflects in his own pieces as well as in the numerous collaborations he has done and continues to do, including with cabaret artist Jérôme Marin (Sous l’ombrelle, 2011), Marie Caroline Hominal (Duchesses, 2009), and visual artist Théo Mercier (Radio Vinci Park, 2016).
Between 2005 and 2016, Chaignaud created a series of noteworthy shows with Cecilia Bangolea that continue to be shown worldwide, including Pâquerettes (2008), Sylphides (2009), (M)IMOSA (co-written and performed with Trajal Harrell and Marlene Monteiro Freitas, 2011), Dub Love (2013), and DFS (2016). In 2021, he founded the organisation mandorle productions. With Nina Laisné, he created Romances inciertos, un autre Orlando (2017). The piece was presented at the 72nd edition of the Festival d’Avignon and brought together signing and dance around androgynous figures drawn from Spanish Baroque folklore. In connection to his ongoing relationship to music, Chaignaud presented Symphonia Harmoniæ Cælesitum Revelationum (2019) with Marie-Pierre Brébant, a piece in which he sang the complete repertoire of Hildegard of Bingen. In 2020, he co-created the duet GOLD SHOWER with the butoh pioneer Akaji Maro, presented at the Festival d’Automne à Paris. In the same year, he performed Un Bolero, a choreography developed in dialogue with Dominique Brun, based on Bronislava Nijinska’s oeuvre. In recent years, Chaignaud has developed a choreographic practice outside of his own work on stage. In 2018, he made Soufflette for fourteen dancers of the Norwegian ballet company Carte Blanche, and in 2022, he created t u m u l u s, a work for thirteen performers, with Geoffroy Jourdain (Les Cris de Paris), as well as the short piece Blasons for the Madeiran company Dançando com a Diferença. In 2023, he created Cortèges at the Paris Philharmonic with composer Sasha J. Blondeau, and Mirlitons with beatboxer Aymeric Hainaux. In 2024, François Chaignaud and Geoffroy Jourdain continued their collaboration with the show In Absentia. That same year, after the Musée du Louvre and the Festival d’Automne à Paris commissioned a work from Chaignaud, he created Petites Joueuses – a collective work in the form of an itinerary for the moat of the Louvre Médiéval. His new piece Último Helecho, with Nadia Larcher and Nina Laisné, premiered in 2025. A portrait is dedicated to him on the occasion of the Festival d’Automne à Paris 2025.
François Chaignaud was awarded “Personnalité choréographique” from the French Syndicate of Critique in 2021. He is a Knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres and an Associate Artist at Chaillot – Théâtre national de la Danse in Paris as well as at Maison de la danse and the Biennale de la danse de Lyon.
2025
