François Chaignaud, Théo Mercier

Choreographer François Chaignaud and beatboxer Aymeric Hainaux weave a physical and musical alchemy in which sound, voice and rhythm intertwine with performative intensity. Fracas × 7 is the continuation of Mirlitons, in its exploration of a unique body and sound-based language.

Nina Laisné and François Chaignaud invite us on a journey into the heart of the art of romance, in the company of a multi-faceted Orlando. Using this musical material and the stories that run through it it as a starting point, they give shape to a piece which intertwines eras and dances. It is a magic lantern in which the androgynous figures of San Miguel and Doncella Guerrera parade before us.

Mirlitons is an encounter between two voices and two bodies, those of choreographer François Chaignaud and beatboxer Aymeric Hainaux. It gives rise to a physical and musical alchemy in which sound, voice and rhythm combine to form an unclassifiable performative intensity. 

The encounter between the Japanese butoh dancer Akaji Maro, master of the strange and the absurd, and the multi-faceted singer and choreographer François Chaignaud turns their duet at the frontiers of different genres into a pagan ritual, a celebration of bodies in all their states. GOLD SHOWER, a mirrored portrait of two unclassifiable figures, transcends differences in which the joy of disruption is played out to the full. 

Following on from Romances inciertos, another Orlando, Nina Laisné and François Chaignaud extend their utopic fusion of dance and music based on South American repertoires. In the company of the Argentinian singer Nadia Larcher, they compose a cosmogonic universe in which voices resonate with the breathy sound of the sackbut and zapateo rhythms. 

The outrageous challenge taken up by Marie-Pierre Brébant and François Chaignaud is to perform the complete musical works of Hildegard von Bingen. Like two figures from another era, they invite us to a take a plunge – both vocally and physically. Within this corpus, each note, each movement opens up access to new perception-based worlds.

With their bodies vacuum-packed into black latex bags borrowed from the world of S&M, the sylphs evoke, by turns, recumbent figures set in stone, cocoons made of some kind of dark-coloured matter or body bags. What unfurls in this piece piece is a perception-based enigma, which deftly slips from ancient statuary into Body Art. This Portrait brings Sylphides back to life, the first mythical piece co-signed by Cecilia Bengolea and François Chaignaud in 2009, performed here in a choral and immersive version.

"Tumer", in Old French, means to dance, stir, or fall backwards. In the company of a collective of singing, dancing, and constantly transforming tumerels, Geoffroy Jourdain and François Chaignaud have concocted a mischievous review. Moving between different eras and genres, from polyphonic singing to variety, it brings this Portrait, and indeed the 2025 edition of the Festival d'Automne, to a close.