Figures in 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 perpetrator and victim? Come to experience the culmination of the important new collaboration of distinguished international artists Crystal Pite, Simon McBurney, and the breathtaking NDT 1 dancers. Over a span of four years, Pite and McBurney, propelled by the urgency of our time and the growing global destruction they both witnessed, have pin their hopes and concerns about our present on this touching and burning danse trilogy. The fruit of their work, Figures in Extinction, is an intercultural dialogue split into three surprising, 30 minute parts linked together by dance, performance, spoken word, document and music.

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.

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.

Figures in Extinction [3.0] requiem is a requiem for grief, and our relationship with the dead.

The entire trilogy won the Sky Arts Award in the category Dance in 2025.

NDT’s associate choreographer Crystal Pite, known for her breath-taking, boundary-pushing work in dance, and Simon McBurney, influential and innovative theatre-maker and co-founder of Complicité, unite their visionary practices to explore how artists can meaningfully create in the face of mass destruction. 

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.