Jasmin Vardimon Company to Receive Its Own Creative Space

Jasmin Vardimon Company announces today that it has received two major boosts in its bid to relocate to a new state-of-the-art purpose-built home in Ashford, Kent. To coincide with last week's approval of the development of a currently disused site in on the Henwood Industrial Estate by Ashford Borough Council's Planning Committee, the company has revealed that Arts Council England has approved a grant of over £3million of National Lottery funding towards the ground-breaking project.

This project will provide the Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company, which has had its base in Ashford for the past seven years, with a self-financing, energy-efficient, bespoke, new-build home in the Kent town.

The building will be designed to advanced standards of sustainability and efficiency. Its ultramodern fit-out, which will provide the capital infrastructure in order to deliver financial resilience, will enable the company to develop its artistic model and content, education and outreach work well into the future. At the same time it will provide the Ashford community with a valuable asset, which will add to the town's health and fitness and arts offering as well as contributing to the local economy.

The new space will have the capacity to house a creation and presentation space for Jasmin Vardimon Company and dedicated training spaces for the educational wing of the company.

In addition to the facilities for Jasmin Vardimon Company, the scheme being put forward by Kent County Council, also includes 29 light industrial units, the proceeds of which will help to make it self-financing.

The space will also include incubator and start-up spaces for emerging local creative companies and individuals. Community facilities will include space for additional training courses delivered in partnership with Kent County Council, a Pilates and yoga studio to house classes and a café for people to meet and socialise.

The facilities will also be available for the wider arts industry with a preview arena for visiting companies to showcase new work.

Additional funding is being made available by the South East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP), which has agreed a £1.597m Growing Places Fund loan.

The creative space will be leased from Kent County Council by the Jasmin Vardimon Company.

Together with the light industrial units, the total project cost is £9.145 million.

Since 2012, the Jasmin Vardimon Company has been based at the Stour Centre in the town. which it has now outgrown. A number of other companies have expressed an interest in using the space there, while small creative businesses are emerging from Jasmin Vardimon Company who themselves need space.

Work on the dance studio will begin shortly with occupation by the Jasmin Vardimon Company by September next year.

Jasmin Vardimon - Artistic Director of Jasmin Vardimon Dance Company says

"This is a significant and hugely exciting step forward towards the realisation of my long-held dream for The Jasmin Vardimon Company. Since founding the company in 1998, it has always been my ambition to develop a creative hub, an environment in which to research, create, produce and educate. A laboratory for multi disciplinary artistic study and creative research, where we can provide dancers with development programmes that enables them to fully engage with the physical, emotional, intellectual and technical aspects of the work. Today we are a huge step closer to that."