Думи мої – Dumy Moyi

Choreographer François Chaignaud was invited to the Montpellier Danse 2013 festival to present his new show: Думи мої

“François Chaignaud is a mysterious, wonderful figure who has appeared on the dance scene in recent years. Steeped in underground culture, a tightrope walker between genres, a singer as well as a dancer and performer, a daring experimenter, he is shaking up the humdrum world of choreography. He is in high demand.

Here he is performing solo. There is a long tradition of solo performances in modern dance: autobiographical, manifesto-like, the solo is considered inaugural and foundational. But Chaignaud comes to it only after the fact. Almost always choreographing in pairs (with Cecilia Bengolea), multiplying collaborations, drawn to his life as an international artist, this dancer experiments with an antidote to his working habits.

A tight schedule. A rendezvous in an old chapel. Daily performances with rehearsals. Physical proximity to the audience. François Chaignaud shifts his physical power into a theatricality that goes beyond his everyday framework.

There is something ceremonial and extraordinary in the way this dancer also uses his voice, or adorns himself in a monumental, magnificent costume that envelops his entire body. Through his commitment, the artist heightens the exciting ambiguities of presence: simply there, close, obvious, but made entirely of fiction and projections. This deliciously blurs the boundaries between truth and falsehood, reality and imagination, and carries us away in the movement of the world. Until we are dizzy.”

Gérard Mayen