On 30th September Figures in Extinction [1.0] by Crystal Pite, in collaboration with British director Simon McBurney and his company Complicté, was awarded a Zwaan (Swan) for the most impressive dance production at the Nederlandse Dansdagen Gala in Maastricht. The Zwaan is the most prestigious dance prize awarded at the Dansdagen festival. The piece was part of a triple bill Dreams 360 which premiered at the Amare in The Hague in May.
Figures in Extinction [1.0] marked the first of hopefully many collaborations between McBurney, Pite and NDTand was all about the effects of climate change and other man-made aberrations on wild life and the environment. We were taken through a sequence of cameos/tableaux highlighting the plight of animals and birds, each one announced with a surtitle caption – Figure I, Figure 4 etc. The first was almost the most dramatic – the Pyrenean ibex which became extinct in 2000. This amazing piece involved a single male dancer with two enormous ibex type horns on his arms. The plight of several more species was highlighted but in the interest of balance and fair play we were also subjected to the occasional rant by a rather flashy climate change gainsayer. Powerful and thought provoking stuff, beautifully presented with some amazing reflective light backdrops and, as always, breath-taking lighting by Tom Visser. Mr Visser deserves a special mention. His work for NDT is always outstanding, a major and important contribution to each performance. Maybe they should give him a show of his own. Michael Hasted 1st October 2022
Photo by and ©RAHI REZVANI 2022
