Figures in Extinction Wins 2025 Sky Arts Dance Award
We are delighted to announce that Figures in Extinction, our urgent dance trilogy co-created by Simon McBurney and choreographer Crystal Pite in a co-production with Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT), has been awarded the 2025 Sky Arts Dance Award.
Developed over four years and performed by the astounding dancers of NDT 1, Figures in Extinction responds to escalating environmental and social collapse, evolving through three interconnected works that fuse dance, spoken word, music and documentary.
The complete trilogy premiered at Aviva Studios, Manchester in February 2025. It has since toured in Europe, most recently playing at the 2025 Edinburgh International Festival. The next stops on the show’s tour will be to Théâtre de la Ville, Paris from 22 – 30 October and Sadler’s Wells, London from 5 – 8 November. Tickets for both runs are currently sold out, check the respective websites and contact their box offices for returns.
Emily Molnar, Artistic Director at NDT said:
“Thank you Sky Arts Awards for this incredible honour. Thank you to Simon McBurney and Crystal Pite – who daringly exchanged and fiercely grappled with the situation threatening to engulf us, and never once flinched. Thank you to the extraordinary dancers of Nederlands Dans Theatre, who turned their brilliant creative energy into acts of response. And thank you, to the remarkable creative teams behind these four years, and everyone at NDT and Complicité for their unwavering trust, care and commitment.”
Simon McBurney, Artistic Director at Complicité said:
“We are at a moment where many people in this world do not have a voice. This was sent to us by a writer in Gaza. Her husband is gravely ill, and we are working to get her evacuated:
‘I speak to you from Gaza, where the artist does not carry a brush, but a light that refuses to
fade.
Our stage is not made of wood, but of earth itself, heavy with dreams.
We dance not because our feet are light, but because the soul longs for space.
You, artists of the world, are not far from us.
You are the extension of our voices – carrying our cries where our echoes cannot reach.
You are the ones who can translate our pain into paintings, into plays, into songs, into
poems, into dances,
so that no one may ever say we lived in shadow and went unseen.
Carry our hearts in your paintings, in your songs, in your theatres.
Carry with us this noble burden.
Let the world hear that silence is not our choice –
that life still clings to us, as we cling to it.’”
Read the full press release here
© Sky Arts Awards