Bangarra Dance Theatre has received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance at the 20th International Festival of Contemporary Dance in Venice, marking an historic international recognition of the company’s work.
Presented by La Biennale di Venezia President Pietrangelo Buttafuoco and Director of the Dance Department Sir Wayne McGregor, the award was accepted by Bangarra Artistic Director and Co-CEO Frances Rings and former Artistic Director Stephen Page at the Sala delle Colonne in Ca’ Giustinian on July 26.
Bangarra is the first Australian recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance and the first company to receive the honour since its inception. Historically presented to individual choreographers and dancers, the award recognises artists whose body of work has transformed the language of dance and brought new urgency to the form through the force of their cultures.
The ceremony coincided with Bangarra’s visit to Venice for the European premiere of Rings’ Terrain at Biennale Danza 2026. Rings and Page were joined by 12 Bangarra dancers and members of the company.
Mirning woman Rings described the award as an honour shared across Bangarra’s past and present, and with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities at the heart of its work.
“For Australia and our many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to be internationally recognised with the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement in Dance is truly an enormous honour,” she said.
“It is incredible to have this validation from an international organisation with the prestige of the Venice Biennale, recognising that Bangarra’s impact has rippled across the globe.”
Rings paid tribute to the communities, Elders, cultural consultants, alumni, dancers, creatives, staff and Board members who have contributed to the company since it was founded in 1989.
She also acknowledged the defining contribution of Munaldjali and Nunukul man Stephen Page, who led Bangarra from 1991 until 2022, along with founders Uncle Rob Bryant, Cheryl Stone and Carole Y. Johnson and the company’s founding dancers.
“This award recognises all those who have been part of the Bangarra story,” Rings said. “The work we do we don’t do alone.”
Page said the international acknowledgement offered an opportunity to reflect on the creative energy and commitment that has sustained Bangarra for more than three decades.
“Receiving a global acknowledgement is extraordinary, let alone being a First Nations company,” he said.
“It is a wonderful recognition of Bangarra’s exploration of the crossover between contemporary and tradition. We are deeply humbled and profoundly grateful for the Biennale di Venezia’s recognition of our distinctive dance theatre language.”
McGregor said the recipients of the 2026 Golden and Silver Lions had brought about a “seismic shift” in understandings of dance and the cultural contexts in which it is performed.
Since its beginnings in Sydney in 1989, Bangarra has developed a distinctive contemporary dance language grounded in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, stories and relationships with Country. Its repertoire has been shaped through collaboration with communities, Elders and cultural consultants, and has carried First Nations stories to stages across Australia and internationally.
In receiving the Golden Lion, Bangarra described the moment as a celebration of its artistic and cultural songline, honouring those who laid its foundations and those carrying the company forward today.