Andonis Foniadakis
Andonis Foniadakis grew up in the town of Ierapetra, in the south of the island of Crete, Greece. He began his dance training with Niki Papadaki at the local dance school in his hometown. From 1990 to 1992, he studied at the State School of Dance in Athens, and was awarded the prestigious Maria Callas scholarship to pursue his studies at Rudra Bejart Lausanne in Switzerland until 1994.
As a dancer, Andonis collaborated with several companies: the Bejart Ballet Lausanne (1994–1996) under the direction of Maurice Béjart, the Lyon Opera Ballet (1996–2002) under the direction of Yorgos Loukos, and with Saburo Teshigawara / Karas Co. (2004) under the direction of Saburo Teshigawara. During his years with these companies, he performed numerous choreographic works, including those by Maguy Marin, Jiri Kylian, William Forsythe, Dominique Boivin, Nacho Duato, Mats Ek, Maurice Béjart, Ohad Naharin, Frédéric Flamand, Bill T. Jones, Hervé Robbe, Tero Saarinen, Lionel Hoche, Joachim Schlömer, John Jasperse, Saburo Teshigawara, and others.
As an independent choreographer, he has collaborated with numerous companies: Sydney Dance Company, CCN Ballet de Lorraine, Martha Graham Dance Company, Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, Ballet de Genève, Lyon Opera Ballet, Ballet Jazz de Montréal, Bern Ballet, Ballet du Rhin, Maggio Danza, National Dance Company of Wales, Dansgroep Amsterdam, Cia Sociedade Masculina Brazil, Bale da Cidade de São Paulo Brazil, Helsinki Dance Company Finland, National Ballet of Greece, National Theater of Northern Greece, Benjamin Millepied Dance Company USA, Washington Ballet, Bejart Ballet Lausanne, Ballet Junior Genève, Hellenic Dance Company, CNSMD Lyon, Copenhagen International Dance.
In 2003, Foniadakis founded his own dance company, Apotosoma, in Lyon, France, and since then, he has presented his creations in France, Greece, Italy, Finland, Luxembourg, Germany, England, and the United States.
In 2012, he received the Danza e Danza award for Best Choreographer in Italy for his creation Les Noces with Maggio Danza.
In 2014, he collaborated with director Darren Aronofsky as movement coordinator on his film NOAH. In 2018, he was awarded Best Choreography by the Union of Music and Theater Critics in Greece for his full-length work Galaxy. From 2016 to 2018, he served as Artistic Director of the Greek National Ballet.
In addition to creating and performing, Andonis teaches through seminars based on his dance technique. He has taught at the State School of Dance of Greece, DAN.C.CE and Baile de Barrio studios in Athens, DOCK11 in Berlin, the CND and CNSMD in Lyon, Dansgroep Amsterdam, the Henny Jurriens Studio in Amsterdam, Kuopio Dance Festival, CCN Lorraine, the Martha Graham Dance Studios, and Broadway Dance Center.