Now, Rings leads Bangarra as the company embarks on a new collaboration with the Australian Ballet \u2014 its first full-length production, Flora, which opened this week in Sydney.<\/p>\n
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In February, Bangarra won the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the international dance festival Venice Danza. (Supplied: Australian Ballet\/Kate Longley)<\/p>\n
Making Rites<\/p>\n
Rites premiered as Bangarra was rising to mainstream recognition, with the company going on to help produce the Indigenous section of the Sydney Olympic Games Opening Ceremony<\/a> in 2000.<\/p>\n “People were paying attention and audiences were coming to see what this company does,” Rings says.<\/p>\n On the first day of rehearsals, Page warned the dancers collaborating with Australian Ballet would be different, maybe even uncomfortable.<\/p>\n Frances Rings (centre left) with dancers from Bangarra Dance Theatre and the Australian Ballet in rehearsals for Rites in 1997. (Supplied: Bangarra)<\/p>\n Rings recalls he told them: “We have to find a meeting place. We have to move through the discomfort of being so familiar with our own way of telling stories and our own language and movement vocabulary and make space to incorporate what they have to offer.”<\/p>\n It was about “reconciling our own identities to come together to find a shared voice”, she says.<\/p>\n Rings remembers it being silent in the rehearsal room when the dancers from both companies met for the first time.<\/p>\n She wondered: “How are we going to bridge this incredible gulf between not only our two companies, but between [Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities]?”<\/p>\n Listen to Frances Rings on Awaye!<\/a><\/p>\n Bangarra Dance Theatre’s artistic director talks about Flora on ABC Radio National.<\/p>\n That was made possible by Yolngu songman and cultural consultant Djakapurra Munyarryun, who also starred in Rites. At that first meeting, he sang a song and played the yidaki (didgeridoo) for the dancers.<\/p>\n “He guided us through that process [of meeting] and difficult moments,” Rings says. “He held this incredible space for each of the companies.<\/p>\n “His voice and him playing the yidaki gave us the opportunity to let go and step into the story.”<\/p>\n A songman for Flora<\/p>\n Like Rites, Flora, choreographed by Rings, combines classical ballet technique with Bangarra’s award-winning Indigenous-led storytelling<\/a>. This time, the work explores plant life in Australia and the relationship between flora and Indigenous peoples.<\/p>\n Bangarra wins Golden Lion<\/a><\/p>\n The Indigenous dance company Bangarra Dance Theatre has won a lifetime achievement award at Venice Danza, the international festival of contemporary dance.<\/p>\n For Flora, Rings invited a different songman to collaborate with Bangarra and the Australian Ballet: ARIA-winning Kalkadunga composer and musician William Barton<\/a>.<\/p>\n Barton plays yidaki and guitar, and is known for his collaborations with orchestras around Australia and the world.<\/p>\n When he was 11, he learned the yidaki from his uncle, Arthur Peterson, an Elder of the Wannyi, Lardil and Kalkadunga peoples. Within a year he left school to dedicate himself full-time to music, and by 17 was invited to collaborate with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra.<\/p>\n Since then he’s forged an impressive career, including performing for the British royal family, and with musicians as diverse as Jimmy Barnes and the late Gurrumul in New York.<\/p>\n “William is an incredible artist,” Rings says.<\/p>\n “Much like Djakapurra, he’s just so generous with the way he sees what he does as the place to bring traditions together and create a shared language.”<\/p>\n Barton brings his understanding of working with orchestras to Flora \u2014 something brand new for Rings.<\/p>\n It’s part of how Flora is a “meeting place of traditions”, pairing the classical scores expected from the ballet with Bangarra’s embodied choreography.<\/p>\n World-famous yidaki player meets world-renowned string quartet <\/a><\/p>\n William Barton reflects on heritage, classical music and the lifelong pull of the yidaki.<\/p>\n Hearing a stripped-back version of the score for the first time, Rings admits she felt “terrified”.<\/p>\n “I was like, I don’t think I can do this. It’s beyond me.”<\/p>\n But Barton encouraged her to push through her self-doubt. “[He said] it’s going to sound better. Trust me, it’ll be amazing,” she recalls.<\/p>\n “I had to educate myself, but I love it now.”<\/p>\n Collaborating to make change<\/p>\n Rings feels she, Barton and the dancers from both Bangarra and the Australian Ballet are ready now for the challenge of a work like Flora \u2014 one that requires close collaboration not just between artists but between arts institutions.<\/p>\n “It’s all about timing and knowing when it’s right,” she says.<\/p>\n Since before the Voice to Parliament referendum, Rings had been in conversation with the ballet’s artistic director, American-born choreographer David Hallberg.<\/p>\n The two came to lead their respective companies within a few years of each other \u2014 Hallberg in 2021, and Rings in 2023.<\/p>\n Rings with Australian Ballet artistic director David Hallberg during rehearsals for Flora. (Supplied: Australian Ballet\/Daniel Boud)<\/p>\n They talked together about the history between the two companies and what they wanted to do in their new roles, with Hallberg \u2014 who Rings describes as “very curious” \u2014 reaching out to Rings for insight into her company’s culturally embedded process.<\/p>\n “He loved Bangarra,” Rings says. “It was like nothing he’d ever seen before.<\/p>\n “He was in awe of First Nations peoples and our relationship with Country and our communities, and the way we tell our stories.”<\/p>\n It was during these conversations that Rings suggested the two companies collaborate again, as they had on Rites.<\/p>\n “We were both keen to explore it,” she says.<\/p>\n But it was the failed referendum that proved a turning point.<\/p>\n “I was fired up a little bit,” Rings says.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I felt disappointed in myself and I felt disappointed I didn’t have a better awareness of what the other side of Australia thought about First Nations people, history and futures.<\/p>\n “I said: ‘We have to do this. We have to reach out to each other’s audiences. We have to use our platform as a moment of change.'”Beauty and truth-telling<\/p>\n Bangarra and the Australian Ballet resolved to work together on a new, full-length show.<\/p>\n Australian Ballet principal artist Callum Linnane is one of the stars of Flora. In June, the Ballarat-born dancer will leave the ballet to join the prestigious Hamburg Ballet. (Supplied: Australian Ballet\/Kate Longley)<\/p>\n While the truth-telling that forms one part of the Uluru Statement from the Heart would undeniably be part of Flora, Rings was quick to reassure Hallberg it would “also be about beauty”.<\/p>\n “It can be about celebrating this unique diversity of flora that we have,” she says.<\/p>\n Flora highlights the kinship between Indigenous peoples and plants.<\/p>\n “They hold a deep cultural significance,” Rings explains. “They nourish us. They are indicators for seasonal change that ensure survival and knowledge.<\/p>\n “They are used for our expressions, for our ceremonies, for tools, transportation, for shelter.”<\/p>\n![\"Frances](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/a9f29ece70dc85324fe234855786559f.jpeg\")
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