New Zealand born Rain Francis trained at Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School and the NZ School of Dance. She is very active in the Australian dance scene as a performer, creator, teacher, film-maker and writer. Rain has worked as a dancer, choreographer and teacher in the USA, UK, Australia, NZ and Ireland; she performed with the National Ballet of Ireland from 2005 to 2009, dancing many classical and contemporary roles and creating new works on the company. Since 2013 she has danced with Opera Australia, performing in Don Giovanni, Eugene Onegin, The Ring Cycle and the Australian tour of Faust. In 2011, Rain launched Rain & Lucky Dance Theatre, a project-based contemporary company. In that year she was also commissioned by Project Y to conceive, choreograph and direct her first full-length work The Dream Machine. She has won several awards for her choreography, including first place at the Australian Choreographic Competition and the People’s Choice Award at Short + Sweet. Rain now runs Rain & Lucky School of Dance, is a regular guest tutor and choreographer at Dance Masters International in New Zealand, and is choreographing a new work for Melbourne’s DanceBourne Arts.
