Dance Brigade will present the premiere of Match Girrl, a fractured fairy tale about class struggle exploring the drug and homeless crisis in San Francisco as it relates to poverty, addiction, skyrocketing housing costs, and the lack of political will to make exacting change. The piece, originally presented in January 2024 as a work-in-progress is now in its final iteration to mark the culmination of Dance’s Brigade’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Season. The performance runs for three weekends, January 17-February 1 at Dance Mission Theater in San Francisco.
Set in a contemporary urban setting, director Krissy Keefer uses dance, theater, and original writings to explore the “doom loop” of San Francisco with a deep, heartening, and even humorous reimagining of Hans Christian Andersen‘s fairytale, The Little Match Girl. Created and directed by Krissy Keefer with generous choreographic contributions by Fredrika Keefer and Bianca Mendoza, lights by Harry Rubeck, sound by Jabari Tawiah, video by Lena Gatchalian, set by Lisa Calderon, and performed by Bianca Mendoza, Sarah Bush, Johanna Gormley, Kimberly B Valmore, Deb’e Taylor, KJ Dahlaw, Frances Sedayao, Megan Lowe, dominique hargrove, and Sierra Tiatia.
“Over the past year Dance Brigade has celebrated its five decades of art as a powerful tool for social change and justice,” said Krissy Keefer, Artistic Director of Dance Brigade. “Beginning in January 2025, Dance Brigade went on a 7-city, West Coast tour to kick off its 50th Anniversary Celebration Season with the dance theater work, A Woman’s Song for Peace, with original live music and performances by the iconic musician Holly Near, queer feminist singer-songwriter Ferron, and Afro-Caribbean jazz artist Christelle Durandy.”
Keefer continues, “We have now come full circle to complete our anniversary season with the premiere of Match Girrl. This work was presented in 2024 as a work-in-progress to explore the doom loop narrative of San Francisco with the topical humor, depth, heart, beauty and insight that Dance Brigade is known for. I am excited for audiences to see the end result of this timely and important piece, which I hope will spark more reflection and conversation.”
ABOUT DANCE BRIGADE AND KRISSY KEEFER
Krissy Keefer co-founded Dance Brigade in 1984. From its founding to 1998, the organization established a home season, built a devoted feminist audience, toured nationally, and developed and staged full-length performances exploring critical social justice issues.
Dance Brigade is known as one of the Bay Area’s original feminist, political dance theater companies, centering the voices of women-identified artists and artists of color in all their work through content-driven choreographies that are a high-energy blend of ballet, modern dance, jazz, song, text, sign language and explosive Taiko drumming. The company develops, stages and tours full-length performances exploring critical social justice issues, cultural identity, promoting equity, and creating a more peaceful world through collective action inspired by dance.
