After graduating from the National Superior Conservatory of Paris for Music and Dance in 2003, François Chaignaud has collaborated with many choreographers (Alain Buffard, Boris Charmatz, Emmanuelle Huynh, Gilles Jobin). Since 2004, he has taken up the multifaceted position of dancer, choreographer, singer, actor, historian, and cabaret artist. His work—marked since the beginning by the intersection of dance and singing (Думи мої, 2013)—is enriched by extensive historical research articulated in both his personal and collaborative works (with Jérôme Marin, Marie Caroline Hominal or Théo Mercier).
Between 2005 and 2016, he created with Cecilia Bengolea multiple shows including Sylphides (2009), (M)IMOSA (with Trajal Harrell and Marlene Monteiro Freitas, 2011), and Dub Love (2013). In 2021, he founded mandorle productions to encourage a collaboration-based artistic production. With Nina Laisné, he created Romances inciertos, un autre Orlando (2017), and with Marie-Pierre Brébant Symphonia Harmoniæ Cælesitum Revelationum (2019).
In 2020, he co-authored GOLD SHOWER with the butoh icon Akaji Maro, and made Un Bolero with Dominique Brun. His work also includes pieces he has made for dance companies. In 2018, he created Soufflette for the Norwegian ballet company Carte Blanche, and in 2022 t u m u l u s, then in 2024 In absentia, avec Geoffroy Jourdain (Les Cris de Paris). In 2023 he created Cortèges with the composer Sasha J. Blondeau and Mirlitons with the beatboxer Aymeric Hainaux. In 2024, the Musée du Louvre and the Festival d’Automne à Paris commissioned a work from François Chaignaud and he created Petites joueuses.
In 2025, he creates the show Último helecho with Nina Laisné and Nadia Larcher. A portrait is devoted to him at the Festival d’Automne à Paris 2025.
In 2026 François Chaignaud is appointed director of the Centre chorégraphique national de Caen en Normandie. He is an associate artist at Chaillot — Théâtre national de la Danse in Paris, as well as at the Maison de la Danse and the Biennale de la danse in Lyon.
