1986 opera The Monk and the Hangman's Daughter, directed by Ellen Stewart and presented in Baltimore. Edafos Dance Theatre (1986–2002) Upon his return to Athens in 1986, he founded Edafos Dance Theatre (έδαφος meaning "ground" in Greek) with Angeliki Stellatou, and went on to conceive, direct, choreograph and produce all 17 of the company's productions over its 16 years of life (the company disbanded in 2002). The group's four early works – The Mountain–The Raincoat in 1987, and Room I–Room II in 1988 – represented Greece at the 3rd and 4th Biennials of Young Artists from Europe and the Mediterranean, held in Barcelona and Bologna respectively, and were warmly received by the press – Stefano Casi of the Italian L'Unità described the company as “the revelation of the Festival” in 1988. In 1989, Papaioannou left Greece for Germany to work as an unpaid trainee assistant to Robert Wilson in Hamburg as he prepared The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets with Tom Waits and William S. Burroughs. He then accompanied Wilson to Berlin to act as a stand-in for the lights for his production of Orlando. Papaioannou, once back in Athens, created The Last Song of Richard Strauss in collaboration with the visual artist Nikos Alexiou in 1990, the first in a series of critical successes for the Edafos Dance Theatre company. The Last Song was incorporated into the 1991 trilogy The Songs, which was selected to represent Greece the following year at both the 6th Biennial from Young Artists of Europe and the Mediterranean in Valencia and at the Seville Expo '92. The Songs was also seen by the then Greek Minister for Culture Melina Mercouri, who secured regular state funding for the company. Moons followed in 1992, a two-part work that drew upon the poetry of Sappho and the ballet Le Spectre de la Rose, but it was 1993's Medea that was to prove the company's greatest success. This dance-theatre retelling of the Medea myth was performed 52 times by the year 2000, touring festivals and venues across Europe and the Mediterranean region, visiting New York City, and representing Greece at the Lisbon Expo '98. In her review of the 1998 performance of Medea at the 12th Lyon Dance Biennial, Anna Kisselgoff of The New York Times describes the production as "the festival's big surprise", praising its "extraordinary passion" and "striking intensity". Medea was named "Best