Figures in Extinction

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2022 - 2025

A co-production between Nederlands Dans Theater and Complicité.

We are living in an age of extinction. Can we ever hope to give a name to what we are losing? What does it mean to bear witness to a violence in which we are both perpetrators and victims? 

Across continents, choreographer Crystal Pite and director Simon McBurney have exchanged ideas reflecting on their fears and cautious hopes for our age. Their process has drawn on a rich and surprising array of source materials: from the sound of ice caps melting to the clarion calls of climate change deniers, from lectures on the neuroscience of the brain to the cacophonous clatter of Instagram influencers.

“We have been trying to RE-CONNECT for so long… And have been cut off from our sense of being ‘home’ since we left the world of animals and began to make this earth in our own image…” Simon McBurney

Over a span of four years, the two world-renowned artists have created three works together for NDT 1, each developed in response to the last. Figures in Extinction [1.0] confronts us with everything that is dying on our planet (awarded a Zwaan (Swan) Award for the most impressive dance production at the 2022 Nederlandse Dansdagen), while [2.0] is a searing examination of our need for connection in a separated world. The third and final work will continue this cross-disciplinary exchange, making its world premiere in the UK in February 2025, and will offer a spark in the darkness as to where we – collectively, spiritually, and imaginatively – might go next.

“We would like to express our gratitude to the performers of NDT for their essential creative contributions to this work. We’ve been profoundly moved by their insights and ingenuity, their tireless commitment and trust. These incredible dancers are the lifeblood of our creation. They have given us much joy and a deep desire to keep excavating, uncovering, discovering and imagining what is possible.” Simon McBurney & Crystal Pite

Co-commissioned by Factory International.
Co-produced by Parkstad Limburg Theaters Heerlen, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg en Montpellier Danse.

“Astonishingly imaginative conception and choreography, exquisitely designed and lit, spectacularly danced...Stop whatever you’re doing, and go.” The Telegraph

“The dance in Figures in extinction [1.0] brings back the feeling to what we don't want to feel. Fabulous lighting and mesmerizing visual and sound effects take us from an orange-red tundra to an ice landscape.” Trouw Newspaper

“A knockout new collaboration from the Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite and the British theatre director and actor Simon McBurney.” The Times

“Crystal Pite and Simon McBurney’s Figures in Extinction [1.0] stands out as a powerful portrait of nature under threat.” The Guardian

“A rapidly danced and compelling exposé... leaves you breathless.” de Volkskrant