Figures in Extinction

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.