At the beginning of the 2016/17 season, the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern experienced a change in the dance department – after a season with two choreographers in residence, a new director and leading choreographer was brought to the dance department with the appointment of James Sutherland, who led an ensemble with six dancers from seven countries. The young company is above all dedicated to contemporary dance. Besides own productions on the Werkstattbühne and in Großes Haus, the dance ensemble is also regularly involved in various house musical-theater productions. In addition, the company has been invited to renowned dance galas and is presented among others at Gauthier Dance in Stuttgart and at the Nürnberg Staatstheater.

James Sutherland

James Sutherland was born in Scotland. He received his education at the Rambert School of Ballet in London. Until 1990, he was a dancer at the Baseler Ballett (Switzerland) under Heinz Spoerli. Sutherland has been working as an independent choreographer since the mid 1980s, among others for the Stuttgart Ballett, the Staatstheater Wiesbaden, Staatstheater Kassel and Staatstheater Schwerin, as well as for the Ballet of the National Opera Ankara (Turkey). From 2002 to 2015, he was the ballet director in Pforzheim. In the 2015/16 season, James Sutherland was choreographer in Residence at Pfalz Theater in Kaiserslautern, before he took on his position here as the new director and leading choreographer in the dance department in 2016/7.

 “Dance is for me a form of non-verbal communication which is universal and transgresses boundaries. I desire to probe its boundaries, all its factettes and possibilities.”

James Sutherland