COUNTRY CALLING

Shaped by First Nations stories of resilience and renewal, the artistry of Bangarra Dance Theatre visionary Frances Rings transports audiences to Country. Interview by Eleanor Edstrom

- Eleanor Edstrom

It's a curious thing to learn that one of Australia's foremost luminaries of contemporary dance didn't set foot in a formal dance class until the age of 16. But for Frances Rings, proud Mirning woman and now Artistic Director of Sydney-based Bangarra Dance Theatre, movement was never a matter of convention. It has always been a language of connection - to land, lineage and First Nations identity.

"You can go to a theatre, and the lights go out and, you know, we can transport you to Country," says Rings, leaning in as though divulging a secret, as we sit on Gadigal Land outside the Indigenous contemporary dance company's Walsh Bay studios.

To experience a Bangarra production is indeed to portal between worlds. Synergies of fluid bodies ripple like tides, limbs crack like fractured earth and surreal soundscapes map the patterns of ancient songlines harking back some 65,000 years. "I like to think that my choreography is a connection to the unseen, because that's how we see the world - part physical and part spiritual," explains Rings.

The Indigenous concept of Country encompasses the ancestral connections, spiritual bonds and stories that tie Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to Australian lands, waters and skies. "It's like medicine - being on Country," says Rings, noting it as a source of strength, identity and spiritual renewal.

She believes dance's unique capacity to invite audiences in and express what verbal language cannot makes it an especially powerful medium for Bangarra. "It evokes a connection to culture that cannot be described in words."