Itzik Galili was born in 1961 in Tel Aviv.
He was injured during his military service, and after his discharge he joined the folk dancing company at Barbour House community center, Tel Aviv, under Shlomo Maman. In 1984, he joined Batsheva 2 under Nira Paaz’s artistic direction, where he trained in classical and modern ballet. In 1985, he left Batsheva 2 for Bat-Dor, where he danced for two years.
In 1987, Galili joined Batsheva and performed on Tabula Rasa (1987), among other dances. At the end of that year he travelled to Europe and took part in the choreography course in Guilford, Surrey. In 1990, he choreographed his first dance for Batsheva, Double Time, duet performed with Ido Tadmor. At the end of that year he left Batsheva to concentrate on choreography and moved to Amsterdam.
In 1991 he visited Israel to choreograph My Little Garden Party for Batsheva Company and Butterfly Effect for the ensemble. This piece was performed at the International Competition for Choreographers in Groningen and won the Public Prize. On that year, he founded the Itzik Galili Dance Company in Amsterdam. In 1997, he founded NND/Galili Dance, which was active in Groningen until 2008. In 2009, he established Dansgroep Amsterdam (DGA) together with Kristina de Chatel as co-artistic director, a position he held until 2011. Ever since then, he has been active as a freelance choreographer.
Galili choreographed more than a hundred dances for Dutch companies including Reflex, Scapino Ballet Rotterdam, Dutch National Ballet, and Nederlans Dans Theater II. He also choreographed for other companies around the world, including the Stuttgart Ballet, Monaco Ballet, Bavarian State Opera Ballet, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens, the Icelandic Dance Company, Royal Winnipeg Ballet and Israeli Ballet.
Galili won many awards for his works, including a prize at the Gvanim Choreographic Competition in 1990; the final Selection Culture Award (Phillip Morris Art Prize), 1994; and the Dutch Choreography Award for his long-term contribution to dance in the Netherlands (2002). In 2006, he was knighted in the Netherlands on the royal order of the House of Orange-Nassau.