Q&A with Principal Dancer James Kirby Rogers

James Kirby Rogers and Christopher D’Ariano in Ulysses Dove’s Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven, photo © Angela Sterling
April 2023

What are you most looking forward to for the 50th Anniversary Season?

I have never danced Giselle, so I am really looking forward to being part of that production. 


James Kirby Rogers and Christopher D’Ariano in Ulysses Dove’s Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven, photo © Angela Sterling.

What is the most rewarding part of being a dancer?

Dance teaches you a lot about yourself and a lot about what it means to be human. I think the qualities we admire in dancers are the qualities we admire most in humans: generosity, compassion, bravery, and tenacity. Striving to embody and physicalize those qualities every day is something that I really try to do. 

Do you have talents of passions outside of dance?

Chess is really fun. Our rehearsal director, Otto, is ridiculously good at chess, and he beats me all the time! 

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