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FRANCES RINGS
Choreographer
 Adelaide-born Frances is a descendant of the Kokatha Tribe and is also of German descent. Frances joined Bangarra Dance Theatre in 1993 and in 1995 she studied at New York's Alvin Ailey American Dance Centre, focusing on Martha Graham and Lester Horton techniques.
Frances' film and television credits include starring in the doco drama The Widower, which premiered at the Brisbane Film Festival (2004) and presenting television shows ICAM (Indigenous Current Affairs and Media program) and ABC TV's Sunday Afternoon Arts Program. Frances also starred in Australian Tourism's now famous 'where the bloody hell are you' television commercial.
Frances' career highlights include performing at BAM as part of the Next Wave Down Under in the Festival of New York; performing Corroboree in 2001 at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C; interviewing Gerry Adams (leader of Sinn Fein) for ICAM; and presenting live-to-air TV coverage of the Corroboree Walk across the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
In 2002 Frances made her main stage choreographic debut for Bangarra to outstanding critical acclaim with Rations from the Walkabout double bill. In 2003 she co-choreographed and performed in Bangarra's sell-out season of Bush and danced in Meryl Tankard's Pearl for the Sydney Opera House's 30th Anniversary.
Bulletin Magazine named Frances in their Smart 100, following the 2004 world premiere of her work Unaipon at The Adelaide Festival of the Arts. That same year Frances performed with Australia's premiere physical theatre group Legs on the Wall for the Sydney Festival and travelled to India to lead choreographic workshops at the World Dance Alliance conference in Kolkata.
In 2005, Frances left Bangarra to pursue a freelance career as well as teaching workshops for the NSW Ministry for the Arts. She was a guest artist in the production of Petroglyphs, a new work by Leigh Warren and Gina Rings which went on to win a IAF Innovation Award at the South Australian Critics Circle Awards. Later that year, Frances was appointed to the Dance Board of the Australia Council for the Arts. In 2006 Frances returned to Bangarra to restage her works Rations and Unaipon for the Clan double bill that toured throughout Australia.
In 2007 Frances choreographed WA Ballet's Debris for Perth's Ballet in the Quarry. Frances created X300 for Bangarra, as part of the hugely successful True Stories double bill. In 2008 Frances presented Belonging as part of a Sydney Festival double bill, Into, performed by acclaimed dancer Kathryn Dunn.
Frances' achievements include Best New Australian Work at the 2003 Helpmann Awards for Walkabout; the 2003 Deadly Award for Female Dancer of the Year; and the 2004 Ausdance Award for Outstanding Achievement in Choreography for Unaipon.
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Djakapurra Munyarryun
Cultural Consultant
 Born in 1973 in Yirrkala, Djakapurra is a member of the Munyarryun clan in north-east Arnhem Land. Traditional dance and ceremony were part of his life as a child. When he was a teenager he toured Australia with elders from Yirrkala, teaching and conducting traditional dance and music workshops. He joined Bangarra Dance Theatre at Stephen Page's invitation in 1991. After leading roles in Praying Mantis Dreaming and Ninni, he hit his stride in 1995 with Ochres, recreating his dance traditions with engrossing spirituality. Djakapurra plays a pivotal role in Bangarra Dance Theatre through his collaboration with Stephen, discussing ideas for development, and sharing stories from his people. He contributes far more than dancing, singing and didjeridu playing. He is a creative consultant, linking traditional past and contemporary present as he moves between his remote community, Sydney and international tours that have taken him around the world. He is keen for audiences to gain greater knowledge and understanding of Australia's Indigenous people through the company's performances and believes that through the contacts he has made on tour from Edinburgh to New York, London to Johannesburg he is achieving this goal. After central roles in Fish and Rites, Bangarra's collaboration with the Australian Ballet, Djakapurra and his sister Guypunura - an admired performer in Sydney long before he arrived - led the Munyarryun clan in Laka Bunkul (Evening Star) for the first DanceClan. Several generations performed traditional dances on a floor of sand at the end of Bangarra's home wharf with Sydney Harbour and the city skyline as their backdrop. Djakapurra played the water spirit in the operatic film Black River, which won a grand prix in Paris. He performed with Yothu Yindi, Christine Anu and David Page in the ABC special Songlines. As dawn broke on the new century he took part in the sunrise ceremony at Uluru for ABC TV's 2000 Today - The Millennium Broadcast. Djakapurra was also a key performer in the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games as well as Tubowgule, the opening ceremony of the Olympic Arts Festival. He also performed in Bangarra's Skin, which premiered at the Sydney Opera House, Brisbane and Melbourne.
After leaving Bangarra in 2002, Djakapurra rejoined in
2005 for Stephen Page's new work Boomerang.
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KATHY BALNGAYNGU MARIKA
Guest Performer and Cultural Consultant
 Born
at Yirrkala NT, Kathy is a senior woman of her clan which
is Rirratjingu, the first clan and language group in that
area. Her parents and grandparents taught her respect for
all that can be seen, felt and touched - the earth,
people, animals, plants, special and sacred places.
From her mother and aunties she was taught traditional
dance and about how to identify and gather food, such as
berries, fish and oysters. She spent time sitting with her
father who showed her bark painting and told her stories
about markings and the sacred sites. Kathy has three children
and is also a grandmother.
In 1987 Kathy founded the Dhimurru Land Care council with
her four sisters and their first cousin. Their role was
to regenerate the land that had been affected by mining
in the area. The seeds from plants that had grown on what
were once the old hunting grounds were collected for replanting.
In conjunction with Glen Whiteman from the NT Conservation
Commission, the group undertook field trips to record this
regeneration project.
Their work resulted in the book Rirratjingu Botany,
published in 1992. It was published in both English and
language (Rirratjingu) and was dedicated to the generations
that preceded the Marika sisters.
Kathy has worked as a tutor in Aboriginal Dance and Culture
including teaching traditional art and craft, weaving and
carving. Kathy speaks about her own culture and tries to
promote respect by sharing knowledge.
Her appearance in Bangarra Dance Theatre's work Bush
(2003) marked her first foray into contemporary dance theatre.
In 2004 Kathy continued to perform with the company for
Clan (Brisbane,
Melbourne and Sydney) and as part of Bangarra's US
tour of Bush.
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David Page
Composer
 In the 1980's David studied saxophone, voice, composition and song at the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM) at Adelaide University. In 1989, he moved to Sydney and teamed up with brothers Russell and Stephen, where he first created music for dance, working with The Aboriginal and Islander Dance Theatre.
David's career became intricately linked with Bangarra Dance Theatre when he joined the company as resident composer in 1990. He composed scores for Bangarra's major works: Praying Mantis Dreaming (1992), Ochres (1995), Ninni (1996), Fish (1997), Skin (2000), Corroboree (2001), Bush (2003), Unaipon/Clan (2004) and Boomerang (2005). David performed with Bangarra at WOMAD concerts in Adelaide and Johannesburg in 1999. In 1997 David was invited by his brother Stephen to compose the musical work Alchemy for The Australian Ballet, which marked the beginnings of his collaboration with Stephen Francis. In 2000, they contributed music to the Opening Ceremonies of the Sydney Olympic Games and the Sydney Olympic Arts Festival and, in 2002, The Sydney Dreaming Festival. He contributed to the Indigenous section of the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony. David's most recent music collaboration for dance is Amalgamate for Bangarra and The Australian Ballet with Elena Kats Chernin. In 2007 David collaborated with Matthew Doyle to create the music for the 75th Harbour Bridge Birthday Smoking Ceremony Celebrations.
David has also contributed music to television, composing for Heartland, Pride (part of the Seven Deadly Sins series) and Poison for the ABC, and writing themes for Songlines, Living Black and Pioneers of Love for SBS. David has collaborated with film directors Pauline Clague, Rima Tamou and Wesley Enoch on short films such as Round Up, Passing Through, Grace and Saturday Night Sunday Morning, all commissioned by the Australian Film Commission (AFC). In 2007 David has composed the music for five of the thirteen Bit of Black Business AFC short film series.
Since 1995, David has won four of the eight Deadly Sound Awards nominations, an ARIA nomination for Heartland in 1996, and was the inaugural winner of the Indigenous Artist Award for The Sidney Myer Foundation in 2000. In 2006 David received the Green Room Award for Best New Australian Play, Page 8. David's music is represented by Sony Music ATV Publishing Australia.
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Steve Francis
Composer
 Steve is a music producer and composer who has worked with performers as diverse as Bob Geldof, David Gulpilil and The Australian Ballet.
For dance, Steve has composed music for Skin, Corroboree, Walkabout, Bush and Boomerang (Bangarra Dance Theatre) and Totem (Australian Ballet).
In 2003 Steve won the Helpmann Award for Best Original Score for Bangarra's Walkabout.
Steve produced and co-composed music for Awakenings, the Indigenous section of the Sydney Olympic Games Opening Ceremony, as well as Earth for the Rugby World Cup Opening.
For theatre, Steve has worked on a number of shows for Belvoir St, including Capricornia, Box The Pony, In Our Name, Gulpilil, Page 8, The Spook and most recently Parramatta Girls and Paul. Steve's other theatre credits include Embers, 7 Stages of Grieving, Fat Pig, A Hard God, Stolen (Sydney Theatre Company); Romeo and Juliet (Bell Shakespeare) and The Suitors. In 2007 Steve was a Helpmann Award's Best Sound Design nominee for Company B's Keating!.
Steve's compositions for film and television include the music for AFI Award winning short film Box, documentaries Macumba and Picture the Women, the Dendy Award winning films Black Talk and Djarn Djarns, and the Melbourne Film Festival Award winning documentary Mr Patterns and Grange. Most recently Steve collaborated with Alan John on the Fox8 miniseries Dangerous and is currently composing music for Double Trouble (Nine Network).
In 2007 Steve Francis collaborated with Elma Kris and Bangarra to create the music for Emeret Lu.
The beautiful music David and Steve have created for various Bangarra productions is available on a number of CDs. These can be purchased by contacting Bangarra Dance Theatre or can be purchased online through ChaosMusic.
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Jennifer Irwin
Costume Designer
 Australian Costume Designer Jennifer Irwin’s career spans 30 years constructing & designing costumes for drama, opera, film & in particular for Dance & Ballet. Jennifer designs regularly for all of the major Australian companies and has also designed some of the largest scale spectacular productions ever staged in Aust. Including the Opening and Closing Ceremonies for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, The Official Commemorative Ceremony marking the Centenary of Australian Federation & the Olympic Arts Festival of the Dreaming Opening.
Her dance credits include 32 works for the Sydney Dance Co (including Berlin, Free Radicals, Fornicon, Synergy with Synergy, Piano Sonata). For The Australian Ballet : Alchemy, Rites, Subtle Sequence Of Revelation, Aesthetic Arrest, ‘X’, Totem & Amalgamate.
Jennifer has designed & constructed all of Bangarra’s costumes for the last 20 years (except Corroborree).
For Belvior Co B: The box office hit Keating the Musical, Gates Of Egypt, The Laramie Project, Stuff Happens, My Zinc Bed.
For STC: Cyrano de Bergerac, Soulmates, Up for Grabs, The Virgin Mim.
Opera Australia: Romeo & Juliet.
Adelaide Festival Trust: Ainadamar The Opera.
Vast for the Australian Bi-centenary involving SDC, WA Ballet, Queensland Ballet & ADT.
Film Credits include The Matrix, Mission Impossible II, Red Planet, Looking for Natalie Wood, Strictly Ballroom, Romeo & Juliet.
In 1984, she was awarded a theatre Board Grant to study at La Scala Opera, Milan , Italie. In 2001 a Centenary Medal for service to community. Two Helpmann nominations for best Costume Design as well as ten Greenroom nominations.
Commissions for Directors & Choreographers include:
Graeme Murphy, Neil Armfield, Stephen Page, Gale Edwards, GideonObarzanek, Jorma Uotinen, Stanton Welch, Adrian Burnett, Stuart Maunder, Marion Potts, Kate Champion, David Atkins Ric Birch, James Powell, Kate Gaul, Tony McNamarra, Mark Wing-Davey, Elma Kris & Francis Rings.
Jennifer designed the costumes for the International Box Office Sensation Dirty Dancing now playing in Hamburg, London's West End, Toronto, Utrecht, Chicago, Boston, LA & Berlin.
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Glenn Hughes
Lighting Designer
 Glenn has worked extensively as a Lighting Designer and Production Manager for many companies including the Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland Theatre Companies, Playbox, Victorian Arts Centre, Queensland Ballet and Bangarra Dance Theatre.
After training in Adelaide he travelled to London, working initially in the West End. He then spent four years at the National Theatre of Great Britain working on over 30 productions in repertory, including the original production of Amadeus, Galileo and Guys and Dolls. He joined the Victorian Arts Centre in 1983 and held the positions of Lighting Master (1984-86) and Production Manager (1987-93), with responsibility for the technical production of an extensive range of productions, including the national tours of My Fair Lady and The Wizard of Oz and the renowned WinterArts and ArtED programs. He spent a year with MTC in 1994 as touring Lighting Designer before joining the Queensland Theatre Company as Production Manager (1995-97).
Lighting credits include: St James' Infirmary, A Flea In Her Ear, Three Sisters, Shark Fin Soup, Art (tour)(MTC), The Hundred Year Ambush, Wish You Were Here, A Soldier's Story, A Portrait of Vincent, Talley's Folly (VAC), Desirelines, Prometheus, 1992 Music Series (Melbourne International Festival), Christmas at Turkey Beach, Skylight (QTC) Sex Diary Of An Infidel (and tour), The Temple, Underwear Perfume and Crash Helmet, Pacific Union, Jerusalem, A Return to the Brink, Crazy Brave, The Simple Truth, Julia 3 (Playbox), Barking Dogs ( MetroArts) Jerusalem (STC) Hotel Sorrento, Educating Rita (Hit Productions) The Conjurors (La Boite) Alice in Wonderland, International Gala 2000-06, Rites of Spring, Blue Angel Cabaret, Mahler's 10th, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Peer Gynt, 1001 Nights (Queensland Ballet) Kin (Queensland Gallery of Modern Art).
For Bangarra he was Associate Lighting Designer with Nick Schlieper on Boomerang and Bush, which he subsequently lit in New York, Washington DC, and London. Glenn also adapted Bush into it's smaller touring version which has been seen throughout Australia as well as performances in the UK, USA and Japan. Last year he adapted the lighting for two pieces Rations and Uniapon, which toured Australia as Clan. He was the Lighting Designer for the Australian National Day Celebrations at World Expo 2005, Aichi, Japan. This year Glenn lit the stage for Bangarra's world premiere of True Stories.
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PETER ENGLAND
Set Designer
 Bachelor of Performing Arts in Design (1994) National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA); Bachelor of Landscape Architecture (Honours) (1986) University of New South Wales. Member NIDA Board of Studies 2001 to present.
Peter received the Australian national Helpmann Award for Best Stage Design in 2001 for Awakening (Sydney 2000 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony), in 2002 for Sweeney Todd (Opera Australia) and, in 2004 for Unaipon (Bangarra Dance Theatre). He received the Victorian Green Room Award for Best Opera Design in 1998 for Madama Butterfly (Opera Australia) and 2002 for Sweeney Todd (Opera Australia) and for Best Dance Design in 2005 for Boomerang (Bangarra Dance Theatre). In 1997 He was awarded the NIDA Mike Walsh Fellowship, and in 2002 was a Finalist in the international design competition for the Pentagon Memorial, Washington DC (with Room 4.1.3).
Other theatre design credits include: For Sydney Theatre Company: Woman in Mind, Victory, The Virgin Mim, The School for Scandal, Betrayal and The Jungle. For the Shakespeare Theatre, Washington DC: Hamlet, Richard III and Titus Andronicus. For Opera Australia: Simon Boccanegra and La Boheme. For Bell Shakespeare: Antony and Cleopatra. For Gordon Frost Organisation+SEL: Man of La Mancha. For Bangarra Dance Theatre; Mathinna, Clan (Green Room Award nomination 2004), Bush (Helpmann Award Best Ballet or Dance Work 2004), Walkabout (Helpmann Award Best New Australian Work and Green Room Award nomination 2003), Skin (Helpmann Award Best New Australian Work and Green Room Award nomination 2000), and Fish (Green Room Award nomination 1998). For The Australian Ballet: Aesthetic Arrest, Amalgamate and Rites. For Sydney Dance Company and Shanghai City Dance (China): Mulan.
Peter's other major event and installation credits include – Walking with Dinosaurs – The Arena Spectacular, Global Creatures – Australian and US tour. Notes on a Separation Sydney Theatre Company and IWC, Geneva. Site designer Universal Playground, Adelaide Festival of Arts 2004. Kin 2007 Asia Pacific Triennial festival of Contemporary Art. Co-designer Sydney Handover, 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games Closing Ceremony. Installation designer Stairways, 2003 Rugby World Cup, Sydney. Exhibition designer Mary McKillop Museum, Sisters of St Joseph. Staging and Concepts designer Art House Hotel. Production designer of three City of Sydney New Years Eve Celebrations on and around the Harbour, including Millennium which featured the giant floating Sea Creatures Lantern Parade and the Eternity and Smile effects on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
October 2008
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