News
Work on new South Bank home begins
As Rambert, the national company for contemporary dance, prepares to welcome audiences to its London season at Sadler's Wells, the Company is delighted to announce that building work has begun on its new home in the heart of London's South Bank. The contract has been awarded to VINCI Construction UK Limited and the main construction work will begin in December. The project has taken over nine years in development and now begins in earnest in Rambert's 85th anniversary year. The Company intends to move into its new South Bank home in 2013.
London's South Bank already offers world-class music, film, theatre and visual art. With a new flagship home for contemporary dance, Rambert will complete the artistic circle in the UK's major cultural hub.
Rambert's Artistic Director, Mark Baldwin: "This is an incredible milestone for the Company and it is a great relief to know that 85 years after we were founded we will finally have access to facilities that have been so desperately lacking in our current premises. This new purpose-built home will provide state-of-the-art working, training and rehabilitation space for our dancers, and will enable us to become a centre for choreography that feeds the contemporary dance sector and generates bold new work that excites and engages our audiences all around the UK".
The plot of land on Upper Ground has been made available to Rambert by Coin Street Community Builders, one of the UK's leading social enterprises, in return for a commitment to lead a significant community dance programme in the local area and for the peppercorn rent of one pair of ballet shoes per year. Learning and participation is central to Rambert's vision, and the Company currently works with 14,000 children and young people and 6,000 adults each year. This purpose-built home will serve to double levels of public engagement and allow the Company to significantly expand its education and outreach activities to meet the needs of the local community in Lambeth and surrounding boroughs.
Rambert's Chief Executive, Nadia Stern: "At the heart of this move is a desire to open up the creative process and inspire audiences with the ideas, excitement and joy of this contemporary and collaborative art form. We want to establish an open house for dance that helps to break down barriers and preconceptions by inviting people to the heart of the artistic process to see first-hand how contemporary dance is created. Alongside this we will open up Rambert's extensive archive for the first time in the Company's history. This is a fascinating collection of national significance dating back to the late 19th century, recording the development of dance, the most ephemeral of art forms".
Award-winning architects Allies & Morrison have designed a fully accessible world-class facility which comprises three large dance studios, set and costume workshops, offices and archive. The total cost of the project is £19.6 million, £7 million of which was awarded by Arts Council England, one of only five grants in London it has recently made to look at new ways to increase arts organisations' sustainability. Rambert has raised nearly £12 million of the fundraising target from private sources, and is set to launch a public campaign in 2012 to help raise the remaining £700,000.
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