This weekend at PS21, French artists François Chaignaud and Aymeric Hainaux present "Mirlitons," a 70-minute movement and sound duet. Chaignaud is a dancer, choreographer, and singer; Hainaux is a musician, singer, and beatboxer.
The performance begins before the theater doors open. As the audience takes their seats, Chaignaud slowly carries Hainaux’s apparently lifeless body. When I suggested that this image might express love or tenderness, Hainaux spoke instead of curiosity about the sensations of physical contact, the weight and temperature of the body, the texture of hair. For him, choosing to do nothing draws attention to everything already happening, from a heartbeat to the sounds of an arriving audience.
Shoes, sticks, a microphone, and two bodies are the principal resources of "Mirlitons." There’s no electronic manipulation, no loops, no elaborate effects. It’s a performance made of sweat, saliva, stomping and song.
Chaignaud and Hainaux resist the notion that their different languages merge. The percussive range of stomping and the varied sounds of beatboxing remain distinct. When I asked whether they influence one another, Hainaux made a distinction: “I don’t think we can say influence - I would say nourish.” They respond in the moment to what the other offers. The duet is carefully constructed, but the artists welcome the unexpected. “I don’t think we can say we improvise. I would say it’s more elastic...some mistakes, some new thing happening that we welcome.”
The title has its own peculiar history. In French, "mirliton" has accumulated meanings over centuries. It can refer to a simple instrument that alters the sound of the voice, a playful or deliberately awkward poem, even a military hat. Chaignaud also knew the word from Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, with its Dance of the Mirlitons. What these meanings share, he explained, is their modesty. A "mirliton" is “never something grand or expensive.”
The duet grew from their shared fascination with rhythm, particularly the unusual challenge of working in seven pulses. They became so absorbed in counting to seven that they even recorded themselves reciting “un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, six, sept,” repeatedly to help them fall asleep. Eventually they exchanged seven-syllable verses, turning a rhythmic exercise into a game. Although the poems aren’t recited in Mirlitons, they helped shape the work over three years of exploration and collaboration.
Seven offered a variety of rhythmic possibilities for movement and sound. It could be divided into four plus three, or two plus two plus two plus one, or five plus two. During a taxi ride, a numerologist cab driver informed them that seven is the number of perfection, an idea they embraced.
Chaignaud’s footwear draws on several traditions, including flamenco and Irish dance. But he uses Irish step shoes in ways Irish step dancers might not recognize. He also studied Malambo, an Argentine folk dance known for its intricate rhythmic footwork.
The artists share a fascination with older musical traditions. At one point, they sing a song in Occitan, a historic language of southern France, in high, soaring voices. In a video excerpt, the sparse, direct singing offers an arresting contrast to the rhythmic intensity of their physical encounters. The artists describe moments of quiet and silence as another way of connecting with the present.
Ahead of L’Alliance New York’s interdisciplinary Crossing the Line festival, "Mirlitons" comes to PS21: Performance Spaces for the 21st Century, on Saturday, October 31 and Sunday, November 1, in Chatham, Columbia County, New York.