François Chaignaud’s introduction to dance came when he was a child growing up in Rennes, France. At a young age — around 7 — he found himself on the conservatory track, immersed in ballet and contemporary dance. While that approach teaches “strength and discipline and builds a lot of skills in the body,” he said in a phone interview, it’s “blind to the fact that dance can be something else.”

To Mr. Chaignaud, whose works ignore conventions of gender and genre, dance always contains the possibility of being something else. Known for his daring collaborations with Cecilia Bengolea, he is now concentrating on his own choreography, especially pieces that incorporate his voice and body to create a sense of the otherworldly.

Beginning Friday, the day he turns 36, he presents “Dumy Moyi,” or “My Thoughts,” as part of the French Institute Alliance Française’s Crossing the Line Festival. For “Dumy Moyi” (2013), his first solo, he is, in part, resurrecting a childhood desire: “To make a show where I would wear a huge costume and dance and sing at the same time,” he said, with a laugh. “I’m trying to place singing and dancing at the same level.” (Mr. Chaignaud recently started studying with a voice teacher who understands his physical approach.)

His initial inspiration for “Dumy Moyi” was theyyam, dance rituals from the southwestern Indian state of Kerala, whose practitioners wear elaborate costumes. In Mr. Chaignaud’s intimate, 35-minute work, performed at the Invisible Dog Art Center, he dons different costumes — elaborate and purposely overwhelming — as the audience moves alongside him.