Frances Rings

[5] 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.

[6] 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.

[1] 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.

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

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

[8] 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.

[1] 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.

During her childhood, her father, a German migrant to Australia, struggled financially to provide for his family due to the aftermath of World War II.

Rings also recalls how on the way to school in the morning, she would climb over other people's fences to pick figs, nuts and grapes.

[12] Rings mentions being influenced by the way her aunts and sisters told stories, specifically their body language, such as gestures and expressions, and how she is able to see them reflected within the shape of trees.

[12] She said in 2022 that she likes choreography that shows "clean shapes and distinctive physical architecture of body", that also embodies the convergence of the spirits of culture, Country and people.

[13] Stephen Page asked Rings to choreograph a work depicting Aboriginal views on landscape.