James Sutherland

I got to know James over the years because he often visited Theaterhaus. Even though he is the Artistic Director of BalletPforzheim, he often came to our performances and showed his support for our group… which I always thought was cool. Sometimes he would even bring dancers from his company! I would always find myself having great conversations with him after the show or at dinner. Sure James is a nice guy, and he is also very easy to talk to, but he also a true artist. No matter what the topic, time flies as we are lost in our conversations. He is passionate, intelligent, and positive. You can see all of those qualities in his work, and even the dancers he chooses. I recently performed at a gala in Stuttgart where his company performed, they were fantastic! Great choreography from James and the dancers were like animals! Everyone backstage was like “Who is this group???” Gauthier Dance would also perform at his AIDS Gala in Pforzhiem some years, which is a great event!

James started his dance career with London Festival Ballet, followed by the National Ballet of Ireland and Heinz Spoerli’s internationally acclaimed Basel Ballet in Switzerland. At BalletPforzheim, he has created more than 25 new full length dance evenings. Since 1989, James choreographic work has been seen in Great Britain, Korea, France, Germany, USA, Hungary, Turkey and Switzerland. Creating works for the Stuttgart Ballet (Germany), the State Opera Ballet of Turkey (Ankara), Gyor National Ballet Hungary, and the German State Theatre dance companies of Kassel, Mainz, Schwerin and Wiesbaden. He has also worked with the Königsfelden Festspiel in Switzerland, the Hochschule für Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt and the Ballet Junior in Geneva.

Recently, beside his work with Theater Pforzheim, he has developed and created new spheres for choreographic work. In collaboration with media artist Robert Eikmeyer under the name of “by accident”. Their work brings together film, installation art, theatre and performance creating crossover projects for dance and the spoken word.

Naturally, James was one of the first people I asked to do this interview. I knew he would be perfect for this series. I hope to one day have the opportunity to direct a company. Talking to James and seeing what he has achieved fills me with inspiration and hope… I am happy to finally present this great interview  to you all…Thank you James for your inspiration.

When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up? Did you always want to do what you’re doing now?

I wanted to be a Marine Biologist.

James’s Favorite Things

Favorite Things to eat?

Toro, Akagai and Uni from the sushi board

Favorite Books?

The 13 Chapters by Cheng man Ching, Truisms by Jenny Holzer…I tend to read many books simultaneously…. and often the same one over and over again…somehow I always find new things that interest me.

Favorite Dance Piece or Show/Musical or both?

Edos Telos from William Forsythe + many more Bausch, Goecke

Favorite Movies?

David Lynch

Something you like to do other than your current job?

Cooking, Tai chi chuan and Golf (the perfection of one movement) being Scottish golf for me has something more to do with our traditions than to do with the social implications.

 I am afraid of…

Fear is an emotion that hits you at different unexpected moments….to overcome fear is to become ego less.

 I like dancers who…

…talk with movement…. their movement personality becomes all important… that one can develop with that dancer his/her own dance language… I like dancers that can follow a certain structure but have their own dance voice….. Essential ingredients are fearlessness, speed and co-ordination.

 A dance piece should…communicate…

Dance has a different way to communicate than almost all other art forms other than music….. it relates to your gut, instinctive feelings that are somehow irrational you don’t know why you feel/react, it just does it to you, your brain finds an explanation sometime later…. even weeks later…..When Theatre pieces do this to me I feel like I have seen dance.

 One of the happiest moments in your life?

Oh there are so many… happiest… is hard to judge…one of the most unexpected/happy moments was sending a video of my work, as a young choreographer to Reid Anderson, which he answered by inviting me to create a work for the Stuttgart Ballet.

 One of your most unusual or coolest experiences?

being alive….

 One of the most embarrassing moments in your professional career?

My mother standing up and booing out a great piece from Paul Lightfoot and NDT. We were sitting down stairs in the middle stalls of the Jahrhundert Halle in Frankfurt, I think I shrank 20cm that evening. But somewhere deep down I respected my mothers’ stance she voiced her opinion and in a way that is what theater is all about…

Who has been the most influential person/people in your life? or Career? and why?

Many…. and not all because of what they did right but also they that did it wrong…what not to do… but many people were a very positive influence…..Hans van Manen was one. I was dance hungry as a young dancer and I with Mikko Nissinen collected videos in order to enrich our knowledge of dance, knowing Hans was very involved with video I told him of our collection and he answered “collect everything, even the stuff you don’t like” at the time I wondered, but we did and it became a passion for a while and widened my horizon as the stuff I didn’t like then I certainly do like now…

 One of the hardest things about your job?

Trying to be two people…. Organizational and Creative… Organization has to do with order and creativity has to do with chaos… generally human beings fall in one category or the other…. I am most definitely chaos… so having had an early morning meeting with my theater direction and then going in the studio and trying to create…is not easy…..I, as I started the job side-stepped this problem by making the then dance Director of Landestheater Detmold Elsa Genova my Vice Ballet Director…In fact she not only gives me the freedom to create… she organizes almost everything and is more the director of BallettPforzheim than myself which I must say I love…and feel very lucky

 Do you have any goals you still wish to achieve?

To live each day as if it were my last….. and try not to live in the past or in the future but now in this moment.

 A question you want to know the answer to:

There is only one question!! What will it be when this is all over??

Dear aspiring artists,

Never give up… it is a lot of hard work, perseverance and consistency, talent is not enough and there is little material reward, but to achieve the goal of dancing on stage, there is no greater high as it joins the inherent irrational instinct in mankind with the rational world we live in, and in that one moment you are alive.

–James Sutherland

General notes:

I wondered whether I would enjoy being a director as opposed to just a choreographer….I find it very satisfactory to see a work through to its last show… changing the parameters (choreography, light and set), reducing and expanding are all part of the process…. the dancers and the dance also change with their ongoing life experiences which has a direct influence on the development of the work so in the end the ultimate show becomes the last one… or perhaps as far as you have got… a sort of work in performance. This is only possible under the State Theater system of Germany, were performances are spread over an entire year.

Photo Journal

with Ermanno Sbezzo
self portrait
Company
Working on the Kevin Costner look. Photo Tu Hoang
with Elsa Genova

At work.

Photo Tu Hoang

Find out more about James at www.theater-pforzheim.de. or on Facebook at BalletPforzheim. Have you seen James’s work? Have you seen Ballett Pforzheim on stage? Share your stories in the comments below.