Episode 8. Frances Rings: Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director and Co-CEO on new horizons, continuing conversations and starting where you stand

Decoding Cultural Leadership

8. Frances Rings: Bangarra Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director and Co-CEO on new horizons, continuing conversations and starting where you stand

"Choreography is a connection to the unseen, in the same way Aboriginal people see the world as part-physical, part-spiritual... when we step into the rehearsal studio, it's a sacred space."

Frances Rings
Our guest this week is Artistic Director and Co-CEO of Bangarra Dance Theatre, Frances Rings.
Frances made her main stage choreographic debut with Bangarra with the work Rations (Walkabout, 2002) and received outstanding critical acclaim. Frances has followed this by creating or co-creating a further seven works for the company: Bush (2003, co-choreographed with Stephen Page), Unaipon (2004), X300 (2007), Artefact (2010), Terrain (2012), Sheoak (2015) and SandSong (2021, co-choreographed with Stephen Page).
Frances Rings became Artistic Director in 2023, after Stephen Page stepped down from the role after 33 years. She also leads the company as co-CEO alongside Louise Ingram.

Links:

Bangarra Dance Theatre

Firestarter: The Story Of Bangarra

A powerful documentary about Bangarra, made to commemorate its 30th anniversary. Frances features prominently.

NAISDA

NAISDA Dance College is Australia's premier Indigenous training college

Connect with Decoding Cultural Leadership on social media

Instagram, Threads, X/Twitter:

@DCLPod

[e-mail]

samuelcairnduff.com

@samuelcairnduff

Read Sam's Substack here.

Presenter and research: Sam Cairnduff

Creative Director: Niloofar Pashmforoosh

Presented in association with Limelight

Decoding Cultural Leadership |
Culture. Society. Conversations