Figures in Extinction

NDT’s Associate Choreographer Crystal Pite and Simon McBurney, Artistic Director of Complicité, have created an urgent and timely triptych together, performed by NDT 1. The award-winning Figures in Extinction reflects the challenges and crises we face, laying bare what we often try to escape, while quietly offering a sense of hope that change remains possible. Figures in Extinction [1.0] the list (2022) confronts us with everything disappearing from our planet. Part [2.0] but then you come to the humans (2024) is a searing examination of our need for connection in a divided world. The third and final act, [3.0] requiem (2025), deepens this cross-disciplinary dialogue and reflects our relationship with loss, mortality, and remembrance.

Crystal Pite with Simon McBurney
Figures in Extinction [1.0] the list
Simon McBurney with Crystal Pite
Figures in Extinction [2.0] but then you come to the humans
Simon McBurney and Crystal Pite
Figures in Extinction [3.0] requiem

About the programme

NDT and Complicité present a full-length work by Crystal Pite and Simon McBurney.

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 perpetrator and victim?

Across continents, choreographer Crystal Pite and Complicité Artistic 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 scholastic lectures on the neuroscience of the brain to the cacophonous clatter of Instagram influencers.

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] the list (2022) confronts us with the loss of animals and natural phenomena, while [2.0] but then you come to the humans (2024) is a searing examination of our need for connection in a separated world. The third and final act [3.0] requiem (2025) continues this cross-disciplinary exchange and confronts our distance from death and those we have lost. It offers a hopeful spark in the darkness as to where we – collectively, spiritually, and imaginatively – might go next.

Explore the inspiration and the creation process for the Figures Trilogy here.

“Thought-provoking and multi-layered, it lingers in the mind. I can’t think of a recent dance-based performance that has such scope or deals so impressively with such profound themes.”
— The Times

“A puzzling, poignant, movement-packed exploration of life, the universe and everything.”
— The Financial Times’

“Performed with breathtaking commitment by Nederlands Dans Theater — dancers who seem to embody both fragility and resilience.” — The Guardian

“It’s a beautiful, sensitive, emotional and deeply troubling look at the impact of climate change, and how human beings relate to each other and the world around us.” – The Scotsman

Awards
Figures in Exinction [1.0] the list won the Dutch Zwaan dance award for Most Impressive Dance Production 2022.
In 2025, the entire trilogy won the British Sky Arts Dance Award.

This performance of Figures in Extinction contains:

Partial nudity, strong language, themes of illness and extinction, and intense visual and aural effects such as stroboscopic lighting. It is not recommended for young children.

This is a co-production with Complicité.

Co-commissioned by Factory International.
Co-produced by schrit_tmacher Festival, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg en Montpellier Danse

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NDT is proudly supported by the London based Dutch Masters Foundation, a UK registered charity supporting the endeavors of three Dutch master art institutions. Donors enjoy a variety of events both in the UK and the Netherlands and an annual premium event in the UK. More information on Dutch Masters Foundation and joining this UK community can be found here.