Andonis Foniadakis grew up in city of Ierapetra, in the south part of the island of Crete, in 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 Dance School of Athens and before his graduation he received the prestigious Maria Callas scholarship to continue his studies in Rudra Bejart Lausanne, in Switzerland until 1994.
As a dancer Andonis has collaborated with Bejart Ballet Lausanne (1994-1996) under the direction of Maurice Bejart, Lyon Opera Ballet (1996-2002) under the direction of Yorgos Loukos, Saburo Teshigawara / Karas Co. (2004) under the direction of Saburo Teshigawara, as well as, with his own dance company “Apotosoma-Andonis Foniadakis”. During the years of his professional engagement with these companies, he has performed choreographic works of Maguy Marin, Jiri Kilian, William Forsythe, Dominique Boivin, Nacho Duato, Mats Ek, Maurice Bejart, Ohad Naharin, Frederic Flamand, Bill T Jones, Herve Robbe, Tero Saarinen, Lionel Hoche, Joachim Schlomer, John Jasperse, Saburo Teshigawara, etc.
As a freelance choreographer he has collaborated with The Royal New Zealand Ballet, Geneva Ballet Switzerland, Lyon Opera Ballet (France), Bern Ballet (Switzerland), Ballet de Lorraine (France) Luzern Ballet (Switzerland) Gauthier Dance Company (Germany), Ballets Jazz Montréal (Canada), Martha Graham Dance Company (USA) Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet (USA) Aterballetto (Italy), Ballet du Rhin (France), Sydney Dance Company (Australia) Florence Ballet (Italy), National Dance Company of Wales (England) Dansgroep Amsterdam (Netherlands), Cia Sociedade Masculina Brazil Bale da Cidade of Sao Paulo (Brazil), Helsinki Dance Company (Finland), National Ballet of Greece, National Theater of Northern Greece, Greek National Theater (Greece), Codarts (Netherlands), Benjamin Millepied Dance Company (USA) Washington Ballet (USA), Bejart Ballet Lausanne (Switzerland), Ballet Junior Geneva (Switzerland), Hellenic Dance Company (Greece), CNSMD Lyon (France), Copenhagen International Dance Festival (Denmark).
He has been the director of the Greek National Ballet for the 2016-2017 season and has programmed the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons. He is currently the resident choreographer of the Greek National Ballet.
Foniadakis has been commissioned to choreograph for 3 operas: The Theatre des Champs Elysees – Castor et Pollux, Opera National du Rhin – Les boreades by Rameau, and GRAME Lyon – Il canto de la pelle by Claudio Ambrosini.
He has collaborated as moving coordinator for the film NOAH by Darren Aronofsky. In 2012, he received the Danza and Danza Award for the “Best Choreographer 2012” in Italy for the creation Les Noces in Maggio Danza - Florence Ballet.
As well he has collaborated with Palais de Tokyo as Choreographic Curator for the Prec(ar)ious Collectives exhibition that took place in Athens, Greece parallel to Documenta 14, in 2017.
In addition to creating and performing, Andonis is teaching seminars based on his personal dance technique. He has been teaching in the State Dance School of Greece, DAN.C.CE studios and Baile de Barrio in Athens, DOCK11 in Berlin, CND and CNSMD in Lyon, Dansgroep Amsterdam, Henny Jurriens.