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. He joined Houston Ballet II in 2015 and Kansas City Ballet in 2016. Mr. Kirby Rogers joined Pacific Northwest Ballet as a soloist in 2021 and was promoted to principal in 2022.
While at PNB, Mr. Kirby Rogers performed leading and featured roles in George Balanchine’s Coppélia, Diamonds, The Nutcracker, Allegro Brillante, Duo Concertant, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Peter Boal’s Giselle; Donald Byrd’s Love and Loss; Alejandro Cerrudo’s Silent Ghost; Ulysses Dove’s Dancing on the Front Porch of Heaven; Alexander Eckman’s Cacti; Jiří Kylián’s Petite Mort and Sechs Tänze (Six Dances); Edwaard Liang’s The Veil Between Worlds; Jean-Christophe Maillot’s Roméo et Juliette; Crystal Pite’s Plot Point and The Seasons’ Canon; Kent Stowell’s Swan Lake and Carmina Burana; and Twyla Tharp’s Brief Fling. He originated roles in Alejandro Cerrudo’s Black on Black on Black, Alonzo King’s The Personal Element, Jessica Lang’s Let Me Mingle Tears With Thee, Annabelle Lopez Ochoa’s Khepri, Alexei Ratmansky’s Wartime Elegy, Dwight Rhoden’s Catching Feelings, Kiyon Ross’ …throes of increasing wonder, and Dani Row’s The Window.
Mr. Kirby Rogers is also the co-founder of Creative Intersections, a Kansas City-based dance festival.