Lighting a Fire Under Holiday Tradition

The Little Match Girl is a Christmas story that isn’t often read this time of year. During a time of warmth, family and sweet indulgences, Hans Christian Andersen’s short story about a penniless child trying to sell matchsticks on the last day of the year is a disparate tale of freezing nights and heart-wrenching neglect. It’s a reminder that not everyone has a home or even a warm place to sleep for the holidays, and that was a good part of the reason composer and West Ashley native Laura Ball decided to mold this evocative tale into a ballet.
“It was one of the first stories I read as a kid and not only was it beautiful to me; it also had such a strong social message. Are we really our brothers’, or sisters’, keepers?” says Ball.
The other, lesser reason was because, to tell the truth, ballet dancers get a bit tired of performing The Nutcracker year after year.
“Ballet dancers have a love-hate relationship with The Nutcracker. You can imagine every year, every Christmas, there’s only one dance most people want to see and they [the dancers] have to do it over and over and over,” says Ball.
In fact, the first time Ball was asked to play during some ballet classes for the Charleston Ballet Theatre, they almost kicked her out when she jokingly ran through a couple measures of “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.”
The incident was quickly forgotten, however, and Ball didn’t give it another thought until several years later, when it spurred an idea that would quickly consume more than a year of her life.
“I was performing for a Christmas show at the Charleston Music Hall about a year ago and during rehearsal, the performers would come over to my spot on a platform and talk. Somehow we got on the topic of favorite Christmas stories and the choreographer and I both said Little Match Girl at the same time,” says Ball.
It didn’t take long for Ball and choreographer Jonathan Tappert, co-owner of The Charleston Dance Institute, to get together with Tappert’s business partner Stephen Gabriel and start outlining what would become the complete, original production of The Little Match Girl.
“Every morning Jonathan and Stephen and I would get together for a few hours and read the story, which was an important part for all of us, and then we would work. It’s rare for all of the elements – music, dance, and choreography – to all be worked on at once, but that’s what we did. We went through six full versions before everyone saw the same vision between music and dance,” says Ball.
One of the areas where their creativity was truly put to the test was when it came to making Andersen’s original 1,000-word short story into an hour-long performance. Fortunately, the vividly descriptive account was ideal for including some imaginative jaunts and moments of humor in an otherwise poignant and moving tale.
“There’s a scene where some school girls walk by and she tries to make friends with them but they ignore her, which reflects some of the real differences in society, but there are some funny moments, too, such as when she has a vision about a holiday dinner and the roast jumps off the table and runs around. We have the scene where she chases the turkey, complete with foil wrapped arms and legs; it helps to create a balance,” says Ball.
The final scene, as well, has been well received by all ages as the story depicts a mother-type figure arriving on a shooting star and taking the Little Match Girl away from the hunger and the cold to a place of warmth and happiness.
“It’s not often that three independent art companies in Charleston come together and decide to sacrifice a year of their lives to creating something like this performance. It was a real leap of faith for everyone involved and a real life experience for all of us. It was something that I didn’t think possible in Charleston and the fact that we were able to make it happen is my holiday magic; my dream come true,” says Ball.
With live music performed by an eight-piece orchestra from Chamber Music Charleston and originally composed by Ball, as well as original choreography by the Charleston Dance Institute and scenery by Buchannan Arts, The Little Match Girl will be a holiday show that not only celebrates the true meaning of the season, but will also hopefully represent a sea change in the traditional selection of holiday performances.
 
Performed by the gifted young artists of the Charleston Youth Ballet, The Little Match Girl will be performed at The Rose Maree Myers Theatre at the Charleston County School of the Arts, 5109 B W Enterprise St. North Charleston, on December 14 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., and on December 15 at 3 p.m. Tickets are $20/adults and $10/students and seniors. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.charlestondanceinstitute.com, web.ovationtix.com/trs/cal/33465, or call 843-284-8151.