Vancouver Chamber Choir and Belle Spirale Dance Projects join forces in The Little Match Girl, November 13 and 14
Vocals, movement, and lighting meet in a bold reimagining of David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize–winning choral composition
SPONSORED POST BY Vancouver Chamber Choir and Belle Spirale Dance Projects
Vancouver Chamber Choir. Photo by Diamond’s Edge
The Vancouver Chamber Choir and Belle Spirale Dance Projects, in partnership with Covenant House Vancouver, invite audiences to experience a production of rare intimacy and emotional depth. The organizations are presenting David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize–winning choral composition The Little Match Girl at the Vancouver Playhouse on November 13 and 14.
The Little Match Girl is an urgent, beautifully crafted reinterpretation of Hans Christian Andersen’s original story. For this performance, the 16 singers of the Vancouver Chamber Choir, led by Kari Turunen, join forces with 10 Belle Spirale dancers, guided by founding co-artistic directors Alexis Fletcher and Sylvain Senez. Kevin O’Day’s striking choreography bridges Lang’s composition with the reality of contemporary Canadian streets, resulting in a deeply moving meditation on hope, dignity, and shared humanity.
O’Day is the former director of Mannheim Dance Theatre, and the newly appointed artistic director of Germany’s Tanz Münster for 2027. He has created over 80 works to date for companies such as Stuttgart Ballet, Ballet BC, and American Ballet Theatre. O’Day is joined here by a special guest artist: his longtime collaborator Alba Nadal, formerly with Royal Danish Ballet and Badisches Staatstheater Karlsruhe.
Belle Spirale dancers Sophia Makarenko (left) and Emma Galvin
The Little Match Girl is a family-friendly production for ages 12 and up. A 19th-century European fairy tale speaks directly to 21st-century society as audiences follow the story of a young girl moving through an urban landscape. She reaches for warmth, recognition, and human connection in a world that too often looks away. Each match she strikes is an act of hope, a fragment of memory, a quiet assertion of dignity. Her final match burns brightest of all—a moment of solace and reunion that transcends suffering.
Sophia Makarenko and Emma Galvin will both perform the titular role of the Little Match Girl. The show’s set, originally designed by Thomas Mika, has been rebuilt especially for the Vancouver Playhouse by Senez. Movement becomes resonant, and music becomes embodied, as the Little Match Girl’s story unfolds in front of 29 rolling towers that continually reposition. Lighting by Victoria Hunter Bell adds flames, snowflakes, and floating clouds.
A pre-show talk with the Vancouver Chamber Choir will take place at 7 pm before each performance in the upper lobby of the Vancouver Playhouse.
Tickets and more details are available here.
Post sponsored by Vancouver Chamber Choir and Belle Spirale Dance Projects.
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