This triptych of dance is performed by a remarkable and talented troupe of dancers of Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) under the creative direction of legendary Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite in collaboration with British theatre director and co-founder of Complicite, Simon McBurney.
Driven by the climate crisis and deeply rooted in today’s political landscape, the three thirty-minute works bring together music, dance, performance art, and the spoken word. The result is a compelling mix that is both educational and entertaining.
Figures in Extinction [1.0], the list, focuses on elements of the natural world that are in danger of being lost forever or that have already been lost. It features animals, glaciers, and lakes in a thought-provoking piece that sees the dancers embody both the species facing extinction and the climate change deniers! The work begins with a Pyrenean ibex portrayed with strength and power by a dancer flaunting enormous curved horns. It’s a blockbuster start that tells you this creative and artistic endeavour is going to be something special. As the piece continued, I was particularly drawn to the beauty and fluidity of the ensemble representing shoals of smooth handfish, and then struck by the stark reality of the skeleton of the Asiatic cheetah.
Figures in Extinction [2.0], then you come to the humans, focuses on us. A child’s voice begins this section by asking, ‘Why aren’t they moving?’ as dancers dressed in suits sit on stage staring into their mobile phones. There is a voice-over for most of this piece, reflecting on how the left and right hemispheres of the brain shape how humans see the world and interact with it. At times, it can feel a bit like we are attending a lecture as the dancers lip-sync to the words of British psychiatrist and neuroscientist Ian McGilchrist, known for his book The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. Whilst still forceful, for me this section was less successful: the spoken elements gave the audience less space and time to interpret the dance.
Figures in Extinction [3.0] requiem is a very sombre and even more sobering than the preceding sections. Focussed on death, the staging (in and around a hospital bed), is very powerful and could be a trigger for anyone recently bereaved. Through a voice-over, we learn about decomposition and skeletonisation, and are constantly reminded that ‘the dead surround the living’ and ‘the living form the core of the dead.’ This effect is hard-hitting, with Mozart’s requiem providing a powerfully emotional soundtrack.
There is so much in this trilogy. The performances are strong and delivered with pride and sincerity. It is intense, moving, thought-provoking and often very beautiful. The music is exciting, the choreography exquisite, and the excellent lighting design by Tom Visser helps create the right moods at the right time.
I suspect that one part of the trilogy will resonate with you more than the others. For me, it was the first part, but on the night I attended, other members of the audience were more taken by section two or three. This has to be an affirmation of the way Pite and McBurney’s collaboration succeeds in communicating directly with us on an individual level.
Figures in Extinction is a must-see for anyone interested in the cutting edge of contemporary dance.
Review by Fiona Gilbert
Over the last four years, fuelled by the urgency of our times and the increasing global destruction they were witnessing, Crystal Pite and Simon McBurney 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 which fuse dance, performance, spoken word, documentary and music.
FIGURES IN EXTINCTION
Sadler’s Wells Theatre
5 to 8 November 2025
