Frances Rings doesn't remember a time when dance wasn't a part of her life.
"Dancing, the arts, and creativity was a space that I was really drawn to. It's always been a companion," she says.
Growing up in regional South Australia, Rings would often dress up her siblings in pieces of material and in curtains, directing them in her own backyard productions.
These stories and worlds helped Rings understand who she was, and how she related to her environment.
"I think they just thought I was a dreamer. And that I was always off with the fairies, doing something or creating something," she says.
"But it wasn't something I was bullied for. It was just: that's her, that's the way that she kind of connects with the world."
The Kokatha woman will be the next artistic director of Bangarra Dance Theatre, the country's premier contemporary Indigenous dance company, when she takes over from Stephen Page at the end of 2022.
In the meantime, as associate artistic director for the company, she is bringing one of her most acclaimed works back to the stage this month: 2012's Terrain, a timely work about the impact of colonisation on the natural environment, and the important role that Indigenous peoples and knowledges play in caring for Country.
A late start
Despite her early interest in dance, Rings came relatively late to formal training. Most professional dancers start taking lessons at around 8 years old (sometimes even younger); Rings was twice that age when she attended her first dance class as part of her HSC.
Through these lessons Rings learnt about the Indigenous dance school NAISDA Dance College. So at the age of 17 she jumped on a bus and travelled to the school's then-campus in Sydney.
"When I walked into NAISDA there was this energy and this vibrancy that was bouncing off the walls. It was just this sense of pride, this sense of being confident, this sense of cultural knowing," she says.
Rings joined Bangarra Dance Theatre in 1993 after she graduated from NAISDA.
Although she is often described now as a "muse" for Stephen Page, for much of Rings's first year at Bangarra Page only allowed her to perform in the cultural dances, and she was an understudy for the company's repertoire.
"And then the one opportunity that I did get to go on the stage [to perform repertoire], I freaked out and forgot all the choreography," she told the Talking Pointes podcast in 2021.
But by the end of her 12 years dancing for Bangarra, Rings had performed everywhere from the Opening Ceremony of the Sydney Olympics to a riverbed, where car headlights functioned as a lighting rig.
"All of that spectrum of experiences are rich and powerful; I don't know any other company that could do that," she says.
During that time Rings was also honing her choreographic skills, and in 2002 she made her mainstage choreographic debut with Rations, as part of Bangarra's Helpmann Award-winning double bill Walkabout (alongside Stephen Page's Rush).
Aesthetically Rings is interested in choreography with "clean shapes and distinctive physical architecture of body" that still allows the spirits of culture, Country and people to converge.
She's also drawn to making work that allows her to explore her connection to the world.
Rings's third work for the company, Unaipon, celebrated the life of Ngarrindjeri inventor and author David Unaipon.
She first learned about the under-appreciated Unaipon from her sister.
"She was telling me because she was close with the community he's from … And I had no idea. And then I did this research on him — and I felt angry at first, because how can people like this exist and we're not learning about them in schools?
"Part of my passion is to see that [Indigenous] stories are given a platform. That we use our opportunity here at Bangarra as storytellers to be able to take those stories and put them out there in the mainstream, in the public consciousness, and be able to transform how people look at us and view us and understand us," she says.
The timelessness of Terrain
In 2012, Rings choreographed her first full-length work for Bangarra: Terrain.
Terrain was a hymn to Country, exploring the relationship between Indigenous peoples and Country, and the fight to reclaim our land.
Ten years on, the award-winning production returns, opening at the Sydney Opera House in June followed by seasons in Canberra and Brisbane.
The show presents nine interconnected vignettes, each representing a different 'state of experiencing' Kati Thanda (also known as Lake Eyre): Red Brick, Shields, Reborn, Spinifex, Salt, Scar, Landform, Reflect, and Deluge.
Scar and Landform — the sixth and seventh vignettes — are particularly relevant today.
"Scar is about man's impact on Country, and Landform is about the ability of Country to regenerate and heal," Rings explains.
"I think we understand that going through something like the bushfires and floods and the cycle of deluge, of destruction, of creation — this country's ability to rebirth and regenerate is quite powerful."
Rings hopes non-Indigenous audiences will take away this message about Indigenous knowledges and restoring Country.
"It requires them [non-Indigenous audiences] to maybe take a step back and maybe reset what they think they know about Country and go to those people who have lived with and cared for it for a long time and have learned through generations. I think that's really important. Those knowledge systems, they still exist around us today. You just have to be open to see it through the lens of Indigenous people to understand.
"Kati Thanda really inspired me because it is such a powerful, abstract, inspiring Country, but also [how] it's neighbouring to my mob [Kokatha] as well."
Before she started working with the dancers, Rings made two trips to Kati Thanda with set designer Jacob Nash and composer David Page (Bangarra Dance Theatre's longstanding music director, who died in 2016).
They met with Uncle Reginald Dodd, an Arabunna Elder, who spoke to them about Arabunna ways of managing land and water in a sustainable relationship with Kati Thanda — "from drought to deluge".
"There's a lot of not only incredible cultural information, but fascinating geographical and wildlife information as well, that is rich and inspiring and enduring."
Community visits like this are a foundation of Bangarra's practice.
"It's important to be able to be taken out onto Country, be told the creation stories while you are on Country, to understand how important those living systems are," Rings says.
"I think that going out there and seeing [Kati Thanda] full of water and [also] seeing it as a vast salt lake was equally powerful. And once I saw that, and I felt that from Country, I respected both life cycles of Kati Thanda. And you could see the beauty of it and the power," she says.
But for Rings, the work was unlocked after Uncle Reg encouraged her to think about how Country affects her as an Indigenous person living in the city.
"We tell stories from all around the country, those stories are entrusted to us, but what does Country mean to us if we live here in urban areas? And not only for Bangarra, for other Blackfellas who have to live in the city because this is where our work is, and the work that we do is important for mob who live back on Country and live in regional and remote areas."
This moment of reckoning informed the first vignette of the show, Red Brick.
In this section a sole female dancer is languidly passed between four male dancers, as they move across the stage. There's a harmony and subtle power to the way the group blends together.
"It's about hearing that call to Country, an ancestral call that you need to respond to. And I think you can make all the excuses and distractions and put it off, but it's always going to sit there humbugging you, but it's also to keep your spirit healthy and that keeps your identity strong," Rings says.
Another crucial element of Terrain is David Page's score. Rings says the score alone can transport you to Kati Thanda.
"I can remember David telling me, 'Bubba, don't worry, I know it's late, but it's going to be really special because it's late. It means that I'm working on it. So trust me.'… And he's so right, because what he created fitted that work like a glove."
His aim was to use sound to create the sense of open space.
"And he did, you can feel it in the work. It's like you leave the theatre and you go somewhere else. And that's a genius. I just feel like if that was the only work that I ever did, I would be satisfied. I am satisfied. It's such a blessing."
'Whitefullas call it mentoring. We just call it looking after mob'
Bangarra will also present Rings and Page's joint choreographic work SandSong later this year, after its premiere season in 2021 was cut short due to COVID-19 lockdowns.
Staging two of Rings's shows in the same year has the added benefit of soft-launching her as artistic director.
In 2023, the company's long-serving artistic director Stephen Page will "pass the coolamon" to Rings after 32 years at the helm, making Rings only the third artistic director in the company's history and the first Indigenous woman to take on the role.
"I've been waiting for this for a long time and I feel really ready. I would've loved to have done another full-length work previous to Terrain, but things happen for a reason. And I'm a firm believer in when the timing's right it'll happen," she says.
Rings is also quick to acknowledge the generous support of Page, describing him as "a cultural icon".
"I wouldn't be in this position without Stephen," she says.
"Whitefullas call it mentoring. We just call it looking after mob, looking after each other, especially when we're in white systems."
For Rings, this version of support doesn't just deal in the immediate term; it looks to the future, developing sustainable infrastructure that can be built upon, and that exists beyond the needs of any individual. It's an idea that she holds dear.
"We know that change is important. We know that evolving as an organisation, as a cultural foundation, is important. Every community does it when an Elder knows the right time to pass on knowledge to the next generation; it's a cycle. It's a reciprocal respect that is a part of our life."
This doesn't mean Rings is planning to entirely emulate Page's creative process though.
She says frankly: "I'm not going to do things the way Stephen does them.
"I'll obviously honour this incredible foundation and this incredible legacy that [Stephen has] built. Stephen will always be an incredible part of Bangarra and its identity. You can't unwrap that, and nor should you, I would never want to do that. … And I think the legacy that he leaves behind is going to resonate for generations.
Terrain runs from June 9-25 at Sydney Opera House; from July 28-30 at Canberra Theatre Centre; and from August 4-13 at QPAC, Brisbane.
