Biography

Born in Rennes, François Chaignaud began dancing at the age of six. He graduated in 2003 from the National Superior Conservatory of Paris for Music and Dance and, since then, he has developed a singular artistic practice situated at the intersection of dance, choreography, singing, acting, history, and cabaret. He lives in Paris and works internationally.

As a performer he has collaborated with many choreographers including Alain Buffard, Boris Charmatz, Emmanuelle Huynh, and Gilles Jobin. He has been creating his own pieces, like He’s One that Goes to Sea for Nothing but to Make him sick, since 2004. Through them, he weaves for dance the aspiration of a comprehensive expression that delves into the body’s porosity and potentiality, turning it into a boundless place of learning and metamorphoses. His performances have always been characterized by the articulation of singing and dance (Думи мої, 2013), as well as the search for tools to imagine new experiences of self-reinvention and of attention for the spectator (Aussi Bien Que Ton Cœur Ouvre Moi Les Genoux, 2008, based on eighteenth-century erotic literature).

With a degree in history and the publication of L’Affaire Berger-Levrault: le féminisme à l’épreuve (1898–1905) [The Berger-Levrault Affair: Feminism on Trial (1898–1905)] under the imprint PUR (Presses Universitaires de Rennes), François Chaignaud enriches his art with in-depth research that draws from past gestures, emotions, representations, and forms of life that hold the promise of finding new ways of being together and of discovering restorative and de-alienating principles. This historical depth is present in both his personal work and his collaborations with figures such as the legendary drag queen and Cockettes member Rumi Missabu, the cabaret artist Jérôme Marin (their work Sous l’ombrelle, 2011, revives forgotten melodies from the beginning of the twentieth century), the fashion designers Romain Brau and Charlie Le Mindu, the artist Marie Caroline Hominal (Duchesses, 2009), the musician Nosfell (Icônes, 2016), the photographer Donatien Veisman, and the videographers César Vayssié and Brice Dellsperger (Body Double 35 and 39). He also collaborated with visual artist SMITH (Désidération), and starred in projects by Tito Gonzales (Sphinx), Marie Losier (Taxidermisez-moi) filmmaker Patricia Allio (Brûler pour briller) and Nans Laborde-Jourdaà (Boléro, presented in the official selection of the Cannes Film Festival Critics’ Week and nominated for the 2024 Césars). He performs regularly in cabarets such as Le Secret, K.UND, La Barbichette, Les Moches and Madame Arthur.

Chaignaud conceives and upholds his work as an art of networking and collaboration with other artists. From 2005 to 2020, he formed a singular duo with dancer and performer Cecilia Bengolea within the company Vlovajob Pru. They imagined pieces that were both research devices to explore real experiences of bodily transformation (Pâquerette in 2008, Sylphides in 2009), and a practice of a dance constellated by references to heterogeneous genealogies, ranging from classical ballet techniques to urban dances. Together, they created many noteworthy pieces which have been performed around the world, including Castor et Pollux (2010), Danses Libres (2010), (M)IMOSA (co-written and performed with Trajal Harrell and Marlene Monteiro Freitas, 2011), altered natives’ Say Yes To Another Excess—TWERK (2012), Dub Love (2013), and DFS (2016). They received the Prix de la critique de Paris (2009) and the Young Artists award at the Gwangju Biennale (2014) for their body of work. Their pieces have been performed by major repertory companies such as the National Ballet of Marseille, the Ballet de Lorraine, Nancy, and the Tanztheater Wuppertal Pina Bausch, Germany.

From this variegated practice, in which each piece is an opportunity for new learning, Chaignaud develops a cumulative oeuvre that intensifies the possibilities of invention of a multidimensional body, which is at once dancing, musical, and singing. In 2017, he started learning the Isadora Duncan repertoire with Élisabeth Schwartz (Récital). He has also been working for an extended length of time with musician Marie-Pierre Brébant. Their collaboration led to the creation, along with artist Théo Mercier, of Radio Vinci Park (2016)—a performance for a biker, a harpsichordist, and a dancer—and of Symphonia Harmoniæ Cælestium Revelationum (2019)—an unprecedented musical experience in which they explored the entire musical repertory of twelfth-century nun, Hildegard of Bingen. After extended research, he created with Nina Laisné Romances inciertos, un autre Orlando (2017)—a danced and sung show centered around the androgynous figures drawn from Spanish Baroque folklore—which was premiered at the 72th edition of Festival d’Avignon. These last two pieces were recorded and released in 2022 and 2023. Chaignaud’s collaboration with Laisné also generated the film Mourn, o Nature in 2018. In 2020, Chaignaud co-signed the duet GOLD SHOWER with the Japanese artist and butoh pioneer Akaji Maro. After a tour in Japan in 2021, this piece received from the Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs the Grand Prize for Dance. In 2020, he performed Un Bolero, choreographed in dialogue with Dominique Brun and the orchestra Les Siècles and based on Bronislava Nijinska’s oeuvre.

In 2021, Chaignaud founded the organization mandorle productions which accompanies an artistic production oriented toward the formation of numerous collaborations. In parallel to his practice on stage and his solo performances, he develops and undertakes choreographic work for others. In 2018, he created Soufflette for fourteen dancers of the Norwegian ballet company Carte Blanche. In May 2022, he created t u m u l u s, a work for thirteen performers, with Geoffroy Jourdain (Les Cris de Paris). This project, in which the performers simultaneously dance and sing a sacred polyphonic repertoire, pursues the dream of founding a community that is determined by the articulation of several practices. He is also invited in October 2022 by the Madère-based company Dançando com a Diferença, to create the short piece Blasons. His current works focus on a more contemporary dimension to explore links between sound to dance. In 2023 he created Cortèges at the Paris Philharmonic with composer Sasha J. Blondeau and writer Hélène Gianecchini and the piece Mirlitons with beatboxer Aymeric Hainaux. In 2024, François Chaignaud and Geoffroy Jourdain pursued their collaboration with the show In Absentia. The same year, the Musée du Louvre and the Festival d’Automne à Paris commissioned a work from François Chaignaud and he created Petites joueuses—a collective work in the form of an itinerary for the moat of the Louvre Médiéval. In 2025 Nina Laisné and François Chaignaud reunite, this time joined by Argentinian singer Nadia Larcher for the creation of the show Último helecho. A portrait featuring ten pieces of his repertoire is dedicated  on the occasion of the Festival d’Automne à Paris 2025. In 2026 François Chaignaud is appointed director of the Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen en Normandie.

Chaignaud was named a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters in 2020 and was awarded the “Topor du talent partout” by the Théâtre du Rond-Point, Paris, as well the prize “Personnalité choréographique” [Personality of choreography] by the French Syndicate of Critique in 2021. In 2026 he received the SACD Choreography Prize.