Ballo Arthur Pita’s The Little Match Girl and accompanying learning resource pack has won The Hans Christian Andersen Award 2025. This prize recognises the outstanding achievements in promoting the Danish national poet internationally.

To celebrate, the recording of The Little Match Girl performance is now available to watch for free until 9 April.

A snowy stage sets the scene for an icy cold Christmas eve, where the little match girl paces the emptying streets, desperately trying to sell her matches. The traditional tale is brought to life with music, dance, and a cast of colourful characters.

Based on Hans Christian Andersen’s classic story, this production was created for the stage and has been made into a high-quality film with an accompanying resource pack for teachers to share with their students in the classroom across the festive period. We’re pleased to be making this film publicly available for a limited period, but teachers can also sign up below to watch this film with their students from 2 September 2025 – 31 January 2026, alongside an accompanying resource pack.

About the resource pack
The resource pack is designed to be delivered in several ways, with teachers able to select stand-alone lessons or deliver the pack in its entirety, with the option to produce a show. The fundamental idea is to ignite creativity in students, providing performance opportunities while educating students on the important messages of the show, which explores kindness, cruelty and social class.

Explore the resource pack for educators