Figures in Extinction

I can’t imagine what it’s like to be you.

Sound of ice caps melting. Quiet.

I think.

I think. 

We are living in an age of extinction: of animals, of language, of our connection with nature and of age-old ways of knowing. 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 the age we are living in, and how artists can meaningfully create in the face of mass destruction.

Now Nederlands Dans Theater and Complicité present a major new collaboration that will see these world-renowned artists work together over three years to create three new works, each developed in response to the last. Their process draws on a rich and surprising array of source materials, from the sound of ice-caps melting and tree roots growing to the clarion calls of climate change deniers. Together we will nurture a new method of exchange, embracing uncertainty and looking for sparks in the darkness. 

This is the first of a triptych of collaborations between these artists to be presented between 2022 and 2025.

“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

“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

Awarded a Zwaan (Swan) Award for the most impressive dance production at the 2022 Nederlandse Dansdagen.

A co-production between Nederlands Dans Theater and Complicité.

Co-commissioned by Factory International.

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

© Rahi Rezvani, Harmen Straatman & Sacha Grootjans (reproduced by permission of NDT)