Christian Rizzo isn’t your typical choreographer. In the not-too-distant past, he’s been a fashion designer, a punk rocker, a visual artist—and now, a choreographer who’s less concerned with dance than he is with movement. In his native France, they call this non-danse (a-ha!) and Rizzo’s latest piece at On the Boards, b.c., janvier 1545 fontainbleau, is more like a surrealist painting come to life: shadowy figures contorted in silent landscapes. (The title itself comes from Benvenuto Cellini’s 16th-century relief The Nymph of Fontainebleau, on display at the Louvre.)

Rizzo appears onstage wearing a sinister, Donnie Darko-esque bunny mask; the only sound is the clacking of beads hanging off his pants as he moves around a stage strewn with tea lights. His muse, internationally acclaimed dancer Julie Guibert, is motionless, clad in black and lying on a table behind him. The entire performance seems a struggle for control: Rizzo’s Dr. Frankenstein trying to manipulate Guibert’s elegant creature. At first, she moves when he moves—he rearranges candles, she shifts ever so slightly. Only when they start the music, a fuzzy electronic beat written and performed by frequent Rizzo collaborator Gerome Nox, do her actions start to dominate his, a creation spiraling out of control.

Rizzo certainly isn’t telling a story, and it’s easy to feel alienated by a performance without a narrative—but there’s beauty in their movement. Rizzo creates an environment that showcases Guibert’s deft touches, and that in itself is captivating.

b.c., janvier 1545 fontainbleau is at On the Boards through Oct 10. Tickets are $25.