Figures in Extinction

The culmination of a major new collaboration between world-renowned international artists Simon McBurney and Crystal Pite, and the astounding NDT 1 dancers.

Over the last four years, fuelled by the urgency of the time and the increasing global destruction they were witnessing, McBurney and Pite have weaved their hopes and fears for our current moment into this moving and timely dance trilogy. The result, Figures in Extinction, is a cross-continental conversation split into an evening of three startling, half-hour works fusing dance, performance, spoken word, documentary and music.

McBurney and Pite unite their visionary practices to explore how artists can meaningfully create in the face of mass destruction. The complete series made its world premiere at Aviva Studios, including the never-before-seen third instalment.

Crystal Pite with Simon McBurney: Figures in Extinction [1.0] the list (Winner of the most impressive dance production at the 2022 Nederlandse Dansdagen) is a study of the species and environments we have lost and are losing.

Simon McBurney with Crystal Pite: Figures in Extinction [2.0] but then you come to the humans is a searing look at our need for connection in a separated world.

Simon McBurney and Crystal Pite: Figures in Extinction [3.0] requiem is a meditation on grief, and our relationship with the dead.

In this age of disconnection, we must come together to comprehend what we are living through. Figures in Extinction is an attempt to find this unity, and ignite a collective spark of hope in the darkness.

Read the full online programme here. 

A co-production between Nederlands Dans Theater and Complicité.

Co-commissioned by Factory International.

Co-produced by Schrit_tmacher Festival, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and Montpellier Danse.

© Harmen Straatman, Ennya Larmit, Rahi Rezvani  (reproduced by permission of NDT)