An introduction to Figures in Extinction

Crystal Pite and Simon McBurney bring the highly anticipated culmination of their award-winning dance trilogy to Manchester. Here’s everything you need to know about Figures in Extinction – a thought-provoking meditation on the natural world and our relationship to it from Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) and Complicité.

The basics: dance, spoken word and the age of disconnection

Figures in Extinction is a dance-driven production split into three parts – with each section developed in response to the last.

It tells the story of the climate crisis, biodiversity loss and our widespread disconnection with nature and one another. Expect breathtaking choreography and movement, epic sound and a touch of spoken word in this cross-continental collaboration between world-renowned artists Crystal Pite, Simon McBurney and NDT 1.

Like many artists in our present moment, Pite and McBurney are haunted by the question: how do we create art in the face of mass destruction? Figures in Extinction is their attempt to find an answer.

A still from Figures in Extinction [1.0] showing a dancer leaning backward under low light, with silhouetted figures in the background. — *Figures in Extinction [1.0].* 2022. Photo by Rahi Rezvani.

Who are the figures, and why are they extinct?

We are living in an age of extinction – of our climate, environments and species but also our relationships with nature. One in six species in the UK alone are at risk of extinction. How do we confront this loss and our roles as both victims and perpetrators? Pite and McBurney package all these difficult questions into Figures in Extinction, channelling a range of emotions from anger to fear to a little humour.

Figures in Extinction is a warning, but also a beautiful homage to our planet and the many creatures – ourselves included – that call it home.

A still from Figures in Extinction [1.0] showing a performer being surrounded and grabbed by a group of performers — *Figures in Extinction [1.0].* 2022. Photo by Rahi Rezvani.

The creative team

Simon McBurney is an actor (The Last King of Scotland, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), writer, director, and co-founder and artist director of Complicité – an international touring company known for their innovative and groundbreaking productions across multiple performance mediums. He has brought several plays and literary works to the stage, most recently Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Nobel Prize-winning writer Olga Tokarczuk.

Crystal Pite is an award-winning Canadian choreographer and performer, who has created over 50 works for a string of famous companies including the National Ballet of Canada and the Royal Ballet. In 2002, she founded her own company in Vancouver called Kidd Pivot.

Since 2008, Pite has been an associate choreographer with Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) – a leading international contemporary dance company based in the Hague. Figures in Extinction is performed by NDT 1.

A still from Figures in Extinction [1.0] showing performers gathering around and holding a skeletal structure on a dimly lit stage with fiery hues in the background. — *Figures in Extinction [1.0].* 2022. Photo by Rahi Rezvani.

PART 1

Premiering in the Hague in 2022, Figures in Extinction [1.0] kicked off the triptych with a stunning tribute to earth’s dying species. The production drew on long lists of extinct animals as well as climate deniers, confronting the ways this crisis manifests both environmentally and socially.

The production received a prize for the most impressive dance production at the 2022 Nederlandse Dansdagen – the country’s most important dance awards.

A still from Figures in Extinction [2.0] showing performers sat on chairs, wearing glasses and suits and looking at their phones

A still from Figures in Extinction [2.0] showing seven performers stood upright, wearing suits and staring at the audience

PART 2: But then you come to the humans

Figures in Extinction [2.0] swapped animals and nature for suits and phones. In his first work exclusively for a dance company, Pite and McBurney turned to human isolation in a world dominated by technology and data, asking are humans ‘figures in extinction’ too?

The piece is inspired by The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World – a book by psychiatrist turned philosopher Iain McGilchrist. Interested in how ideas about the brain have influenced society, history and culture? You can read the text here (but no prior brain knowledge needed for the production!)

A still from Figures in Extinction [2.0] showing performers on stage wearing suits, making large contorted shapes with their bodies under spotted lighting — *Figures in Extinction [2.0].* 2024. Photo by Rahi Rezvani.

PART 3: The World Premiere

In February 2025, Figures in Extinction comes to Aviva Studios – bringing parts one and two together for the first time before the world premiere of the final instalment.

Figures in Extinction is a moving exploration of our current crisis and how we reckon with this period of loss. The finale looks ahead and offers a dash of hope, asking where might we go next?

Figures in Extinction premieres at Aviva Studios from 19 to 22 February 2025. Find out more information and book tickets here.

Figures in Extinction is a production of NDT and Complicité. It is co-commissioned by Factory International, and co-produced by Schrit_tmacher Festival, Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and Montpellier Danse.