Meet Frances Rings: Bangarra's new leader

When Frances Rings was appointed as the new artistic director of Bangarra Dance Theatre, it seemed the most predestined of steps. She has been associated with the company almost since it was founded. Outgoing artistic director Stephen Page gave her her first job as a dancer with the company; since then she has been a resident choreographer and, more recently, artistic associate. Furthermore, she was so close to the three Page brothers that she was practically a sister - Stephen Page once referred to her as the "female energy" of the company. She has shared their triumph and their grief - artistic, political and personal – and has been an enduring and charismatic presence. (Who can forget her weeping on camera in the documentary Firestarter over the brothers Russell and David’s suicides?)

 "There is a sense of family, absolutely," she agrees, "His family embraced me. Stephen is like a brother and a mentor at the same time. Those kinships are forged through adversity."

 We were talking in the foyer of Arts Centre Melbourne, where Rings made her debut with the company way back in 1992 with Stephen Page's Praying Mantis Dreaming. "Stephen didn't let me dance for the whole year and it was only by chance that someone got injured and I could go on. I was hopeless! I forgot all the chory. I thought, that's it, I've stuffed it, I don't have a job anymore!" All these years later, here she is, not just with a job, but with her former boss's job.

 However, as she points out during our interview, "people forget that I did take a break from the company. I stepped away because I was burnt out. I didn't know where I began and the company ended. It was all one thing and I needed to separate myself, my own identity again. I knew I wanted to be a storyteller, I knew I wanted to choreograph, but in order to do that I had to step away." She worked as choreographer and dancer with numerous dance companies and institutions within Australia as well as overseas, and was Head of Creative Studies at her old alma mater, NAISDA, from 2016 to 2019. She returned to Bangarra as associate artistic director in 2019.

Something else also happened to her over that time: she became a mother. "Those two children became the centre of my universe. I think when you become a mother, everything becomes clearer. They gave me purpose."

 Her first major choreographic creation as artistic director will be Yuldea. Named for a location on the edge of the Nullabor in South Australia, Yuldea (Ooldea in English) was originally a water soak in the desert, sacred to the Indigenous inhabitants, and an important meeting and ceremonial place that connected trading routes and dreaming stories, particularly for the Anangu people of the Great Victorian Desert. But the site was usurped by the building of the Trans-Australian Railway, used as a camp and water supply for the workers, with the local people herded onto a reserve and the soak eventually drained dry.

 "[The railway] is regarded as one of our greatest engineering feats in Australia and a point of progress as a nation but at what cost?" Rings asks.

Rings has a personal connection to Yuldea: her grandmother was born there. Rings is a descendant of the Wirangu and Mirning Tribes from the West Coast of South Australia through her mother's side. Moreover, she is a child of the railways: her father was a German migrant who worked on the railways and Rings spent much of her childhood travelling with him as he followed work from Port Augusta to Albany to Kalgoorlie.

 Rings has created several works for Bangarra in the past but Yuldea will be only her second full-length (the last one was Unaipon, about the life of David Unaipon). In keeping with Bangarra’s ethos, she has a strong commitment to telling stories - "our works are inseparable from story" she says, and story is inseparable from culture. Abstract dance is not something Bangarra is ever likely to perform; as distinct from most dance companies, Bangarra is not just a performing arts organisation, she stresses, it is a cultural foundation, dedicated to preserving and presenting Indigenous culture.

"Every story in Bangarra has its roots in culture and community and the people who care for those stories, the cultural authorities who ensure they are maintained, we go to them for permission."

 Rings has many ideas brewing for further dance works, but creating and putting on shows is by no means her only responsibility. The artistic director of Bangarra is the custodian of a unique organisation: it is a cultural ambassador, a guardian and nurturer of Indigenous culture, an educational institution and a precious link between black and white Australian cultures.

 Under Rings, Bangarra's educational and outreach work will continue apace, such as the choreographic program Dance Clan and the Rekindling Youth Program (under the continuing direction of Sidney Saltner). Rings is keenly aware of the need to nurture the next generation of Indigenous artists, the designers, musicians and composers who will take up the mantle of the present team. (Yuldea will use the music of one of the David Page Music Fellows, Leon Rodgers.) She is thrilled with Warung, a children's work by Stephen Page, which will tour nationally next year, inspiring the littlest future artists. She has plans to expand on the company's existing education and traineeship programs.

 Rings is conscious of the legacy she has inherited from the Page brothers. "It's huge," she says, "it's a big weight to carry." What legacy would she like to leave of her own? What if she was given carte blanch with funding?, I ask. Would she like more resources?

"Of course!" she laughs. And what would she like to spend them on? When pushed, she admits: "Well, I think there is room in education, that's where the resources should go. We have one youth program - imagine if we have one in each state. Why not vision that, why not hope for that, I think we are definitely ready. I look at our [present educational institutions] and the young people coming out and I value them all, but it would be nice to have a graduate program year of our own," she smiles.

 Bangarra Dance Company, unlike some of the newer, more politically outspoken Indigenous companies, has not been stridently "activist" over the years, instead telling its stories and quietly and proudly presenting the beauty of its culture alongside the horrors of its conflicts. The scope of this interview did not cover Rings's political views as such, but perhaps this quote, when she was speaking about her children, is telling:

"I saw in [their] eyes, the same thing that is in the eyes of the young people who come into Bangarra, an opportunity to have a life, and to live a fair [life]. Indigenous people face challenges every day, and we can either meet those challenges with grace and dignity or . . . you just continue fighting.

"When I became a mother I decided, it's not about fighting. It's about working with, and doing what you do in your little space to create change, and that's what I want to do, I want to start where I stand, and I want to stand in my truth, this is what I am now, this is the vision I have, it might not be the big, bold vision that people expect, but I'm happy to just honour that, and work with my team, collaborate with my team, so we can continue to evolve and grow. We've got a lot more we can do."

Yuldea 2023 national tour:
Sydney Opera House: 14 June to 15 July
Canberra Theatre Centre 20 to 22 July
Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide Festival Centre 10 to 12 August
Queensland Performing Arts Centre 31 August to 9 September
Arts Centre Melbourne 28 September to 7 October
Ulumbarra Theatre, Bendigo 13 to 14 October

 

For more information, go here.