The Little Match Girl Comes to Life in Dance and Song

By Elke Porter | WBN News Vancouver | November 9, 2026
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A young girl strikes a match in the cold, and for a moment she is warm. That image, from Hans Christian Andersen’s tale, is at the heart of a new production at the Vancouver Playhouse this Friday and Saturday, November 13 and 14, at 7:30 p.m.

Belle Spirale Dance Projects and the Vancouver Chamber Choir present David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-winning The Little Match Girl Passion, reimagined as a full evening of dance — the North American premiere of this dance version. Ten dancers share the stage with 16 choir singers, led by Kari Turunen, singing live, in partnership with Covenant House Vancouver. Suitable for ages 12 and up.

I was invited as media to a rehearsal at the Dance Centre on Davie Street, downtown, to take pictures. In the studio, dancers lifted and carried each other, moving in close formation, then breaking apart, while the choir sang nearby. The story is set not in Andersen’s Copenhagen, but on contemporary Canadian streets, where each match becomes an act of hope, a fragment of memory, and a quiet assertion of dignity.

The production is choreographed by Kevin O’Day, former director of the Mannheim Dance Theatre, who has also worked with the Forsythe Company, New York City Ballet, and Baryshnikov’s White Oak Project. In 2027 he becomes Artistic Director of Tanz Münster in Germany. Special guest artist Alba Nadal, born in Zaragoza, Spain, and brought up in Catalonia, dances the grandmother. She danced for 15 seasons with the Royal Danish Ballet, and was a soloist at the Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe. Emma Galvin and Sophia Makarenko share the title role.

I interviewed O’Day and Nadal on November 3 for Spotlight Deutsch Vancouver on YouTube, about their past, their future in Germany, and what they like to do when they are not dancing. Nadal will soon be moving to Germany. Their 17-year collaboration, Belle Spirale says, is at the heart of this production.

Set is by Thomas Mika, lighting by Victoria Hunter Bell. A pre-show talk with the Vancouver Chamber Choir takes place at 7 p.m. before each performance, in the upper lobby of the Vancouver Playhouse, 600 Hamilton Street. Tickets: bellespirale.ca.

Belle Spirale returns to the Playhouse after its 2025 production UNIVERSUS. This time, it asks the audience to see one another more fully — and, with winter coming, to remember the young people sleeping rough on Vancouver’s streets.

Elke Porter at:
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