Ioannis Mandafounis

Born in 1981, Geneva-based Ioannis Mandafounis studied at the CNSMD conservatoire in Paris. Before becoming a freelance choreographer, he danced with Gothenburg Opera Ballet, Nederlands Dans Theater II, and was a member of The Forsythe Company from 2005-2009. In 2004, he set up the Lemurius Company in Athens, and with it created several pieces, followed in 2007 by the duet P.A.D in collaboration with Fabrice Mazliah, and HUE. In 2009, in collaboration with Fabrice Mazliah and May Zarhy, he founded Compagnie Projet 11, which was later renamed Compagnie Ioannis Mandafounis. This unit went on to create a plethora of pieces: ZERO, Cover Up, Pausing, The Nikel Project, Eifo EFI, Twisted Pair, ApersonA, Indonesian Exchange, One One One, Ossip Mandelstam, A Performance, NU, Sing the Positions, It finishes when it finishes, Make sure you have exhausted all that is communicated through stillness and silence, Faded, Bis.N.S (as usual) with the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon, and pling plong with Compagnie Norrdans. These works have been performed in Europe, Asia, Africa, Latin America and the USA. Ioannis has also produced several commissions, including: L’après-midi d’un faune for the Greek National Opera Ballet, In-Formation and Howl for Geneva Junior Ballet, Viel-Leicht for Theater Junge Generation Dresden, MayABuff EFI for the National Theatre of Greece, It finishes when it finishes for the Royal Danish Ballet’s Corpus ensemble, Fearful Symmetries for the Grand Théâtre in Geneva, Point of no return the Greek National Opera Ballet, and Komm und birg dein Antliz for the Ballet de l’Opéra de Lyon. Since 2018, Cie Ioannis Mandafounis has been jointly supported by the City of Geneva, the Canton of Geneva, and Swiss culture foundation Pro Helvetia. Ioannis Mandafounis himself has twice received outstanding dancer awards, from the Greek Culture Ministry (2002) and at the Swiss Culture Awards (2015).