Frances Rings

Frances Rings is an Aboriginal Australian dancer, choreographer and former television presenter.

She was born in Adelaide, South Australia, and is a Wirangu and Mirning woman.

She became artistic director for Bangarra Dance Theatre in 2023.

Frances Rings was born in Adelaide, South Australia.

She is a descendant of the Wirangu and Mirning Tribes from the West Coast of South Australia.

She has a younger sister Gina, who is a dancer and choreographer.

Rings’ parents divorced when she was three years old, and Rings went to live with her father, while her mother continued living on the west coast of South Australia.

Her father was a railway worker in Port Augusta, where she partially grew up.

From that time Rings’ and her father started to move around Australia frequently.

For his work, her father was transferred to Kalgoorlie, and then they eventually went on to move to Albany in Western Australia, and then to Queensland because of the climate there.

Growing up in Port Augusta during her early childhood, Rings had voiced an interest in dance, but her family was unable to afford to pay for ballet lessons.

She continued to show her passion for dance as she created a theatre in her backyard out of water tanks, which she turned into a cubby house and decorated with curtains, as well as dressing up her siblings in costumes which she made out of bits of materials that were available to her.

She would often stage mini productions with her siblings in her makeshift theatre.

At the age of 16, Rings was living in Ipswich, Queensland where she attended a boarding school.

In year 11, when pursuing her Higher School Certificate, dance was offered as a HSC course.

Rings decided to sign up for HSC dance as one of her electives.

She mentioned that she had an encouraging dance teacher who pushed her to do her best.

When Rings was 17, her speech and drama teacher at school told her about the National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association (NAISDA) in Sydney, where Indigenous students are given the opportunity to learn about dance and culture.

Her teacher encouraged her to apply to NAISDA.

After completing Year 12, Rings left Ipswich to attend NAISDA in Sydney.

Rings’ earliest memory of dance is watching Young Talent Time (1971-1988), an Australian variety show on television which inspired her to become a dancer.

Some of her earlier dance heroes were Alvin Ailey, whom she admired due to his American Dance Theatre which was one of the first professional dance companies that welcomed dancers of all races and backgrounds.

Before Alvin Ailey, she was inspired by Michael Jackson.

During high school, Rings’ dance class was taken on a trip to Sydney to watch a live performance of Cats the musical at the Theatre Royal.

In 1992, Rings graduated from NAISDA.

she performed in her graduation performance where Stephen Page, the artistic director of the Bangarra Dance Theatre at the time, saw her, and invited her to join Bangarra.

In 1993, Rings joined Bangarra to develop her skills as a choreographer.

She also performed in Page's production of Praying Mantis Dreaming, Ninni and Ochres.

She became the first choreographic Artist in Residence for Bangarra.

In 1995, Rings went to New York on an Australia Council grant, to study at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater for three months.

In 2002, Rings made her mainstage choreographic debut with the choreographic production, Rations.

She went on to create 6 more works for Bangarra, including Bush (2003), Unaipon (2004), X300 (2007), Artefact (2010), Terrain (2012), Sheoak (2015).

Within Australia, Rings has choreographed works for leading dance companies like the West Australian Ballet, Tasdance and performed for Legs on the Wall theatre company in Sydney.

She has also danced in works by leading Australian choreographers like Meryl Tankard and Leigh Warren.

Internationally, she has worked with companies like Kahawi Dance Theatre in Six Nations, Turtle Islands (Canada), as well as Atamira Dance Company in Auckland, New Zealand, where she was a guest collaborator and performer for their production of MITIMITI.

Within this period, she directed five end of year productions including, Your Skin, My Skin (2014), Kamu (2015), From Sand to Stage (2016), Restoration (2017) and Story Place (2018).

In 2016, Rings returned to NAISDA as the Head of Creative Studies until 2019.

In 2018, she choreographed a new piece for Atamira called Kotahi.

After leaving NAISDA, she returned to Bangarra as the Associate Artistic Director in 2019.

On 2 December 2021 it was announced that Rings would take over the role of artistic director from Stephen Page in Bangarra in 2023.