James Kirby Rogers

James Kirby Rogers (he/him) is from San Francisco, California. He trained at the North Carolina School of the Arts, where he was a YAGP finalist in 2014. He attended summer courses at San Francisco Ballet and Houston Ballet. James joined Houston Ballet II in 2015 and Kansas City Ballet in 2016. He joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as a soloist in 2021 and was promoted to principal in 2022.

James has danced leading roles in George Balanchine’s Diamonds and George Balanchine’s The Nutcracker^® (Cavalier, Herr Drosselmeier); Ulysses Dove’s Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven; Alonzo King’s The Personal Element; Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette (Tybalt); Crystal Pite’s Plot Point; and Kent Stowell’s Swan Lake (Prince Siegfried).

While at Houston Ballet II, James performed leading and featured roles in John Neumeier’s Yondering, Ben Stevenson’s The Sleeping Beauty, and Stanton Welch’s The Long and Winding Road.  At Kansas City Ballet, Mr. Rogers danced leading roles in Val Caniparoli’s Lady of the Camellias; Devon Carney’s Nutcracker, Swan Lake, Romeo and Juliet, and The Sleeping Beauty; William Forsythe’s In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated; Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort; and Twyla Tharp’s In the Upper Room.

James is the co-founder of Creative Intersections, a Kansas City-based dance festival.