François Chaignaud & Aymeric Hainaux

François Chaignaud

After graduating in 2003 from the National Superior Conservatory of Paris for Music and Dance, François Chaignaud has danced for many choreographers (Alain Buffard, Boris Charmatz, Emmanuelle Huynh, Gilles Jobin). Since his first piece in 2004, he conceives dance as a global expression, his work is characterized by the articulation of singing and dance and a profound relationship to history, both in his own work as well as in the collaborations he has formed with multiple artists (with Jérôme Marin, Marie Caroline Hominal or Théo Mercier). Between 2005 and 2016, together with Cecilia Bangolea, he created a series of noteworthy shows that were presented worldwide. In 2021, he founded mandorle productions, whose artistic line is based on the cooperation with other artists such as Nina Laisné, Marie-Pierre Brébant, Akaji Maro, Dominique Brun, and Sasha J. Blondeau. He also creates pieces for large groups of performers: Soufflette in 2018 for the ballet Carte Blanche and t u m u l u s in 2022, then In absentia in 2024, with Geoffroy Jourdain. He recently created the shows Mirlitons with Aymeric Hainaux and Petites joueuses. In 2025, he created the show Último helecho with Nina Laisné and Nadia Larcher. A portrait was devoted to him at the Festival d’Automne à Paris 2025. In 2026 François Chaignaud was appointed director of the Centre Chorégraphique National de Caen en Normandie.

Aymeric Hainaux

With his background in the visual arts, (he first turned to cartoon stip at the Beaux-arts d’Angoulême, then to painting) Aymeric Hainaux is invested in a very personal approach to the human beatbox. He creates machine sounds so precise as the famous Roland TR909, and his incomparable technique makes him one of the prominent artists of this art. Hainaux “plays what happens,” and his performances are a music of the present instant, attentive to silence and movement. Without a loop pedal, but the use of a microphone, some bells, a harmonica, and sometimes a cassettes player, all exclusively played in real time. He has collaborated with Christine Quoiraud, Tanya Tagaq, Kenzo Kusuda, Oguri, Erik M, and Anne Lise Le Gac. In 2005, he began a solo tour by hitchhiking. This adventure lasted eight years during which he traveled 40 thousand kilometers each year—from Meknes to Copenhagen and from Tallin to Rome—and staged 700 performances on 3 continents. With banjo player Stéphane Barascud, in 2013, he created the music brut duo Cantenac Dagar, which proposed un rituel pour l’invention d’une sensibilité radicale (Sonic Protest festival, 2017). The group has released a dozen records, and this duo remains Hainaux’s main musical project. The diversity of his projects also brings him to perform in the backrooms of restaurants and art venues. These include, in France, Mixart Myrys, the CND (Centre National de la Danse), Les Siestes Électroniques, the Palais de Tokyo, and the Sonic Protest festival. His label Isola Records, which he has been running since 2011, makes books, cassettes, CDs and records of artists and groups working at the borders of concerts and performances. He also has a practice of poetic writing and publishing. In 2023, he contributed to the soundtrack for Clément Cogitore’s film Goutte D’or. 

Concept and Performance: Aymeric Hainaux & François Chaignaud

Artistic Collaboration: Sarah Chaumette

Costume Design: Sari Brunel

Lighting Design: Marinette Buchy

Technical Managers: Marinette Buchy, Anthony Merlaud

Sound Operators: Jean Louis Waflart, Patrick Faubert, Aude Besnard

International dissemination: APROPIC–Line Rousseau–Marion Gauvent