BUSINESS SHOWCASE: NEW BEGINNINGS FOR THE JAM PLACE…
Posted by Devenia Besant on 02 Aug 2023
Hi Helen & Cass, Tell us more about The Jam Place?
Hello Dee.
The Jam Place is an organisation, run by us, to improve lives through dance. We started 16 years ago and our ethos has always been ‘dance for all’.
We run classes with many styles of dance for all ages but we don’t do exams. It’s all about the joy of dance with no pressure.
Over the past few years we have introduced specialised classes for neurodiverse children called Jam SENsations, as well a class for teenagers to provide them with a no pressure, wear what you feel comfortable in, be yourself class.
You have recently moved to a new location, can you tell us more about it? How did it come about?
We are a community interest company and our goal has always been to have our own building. We have hired many wonderful spaces over the years but to be able to add more classes and also create a community centre alongside the dance school, we needed to have our building. It has taken us many years but after applying to a company that helps CIC/Charities find suitable premises, at the end of 2022, we got the call! It’s called Hamilton House, which we affectionately call Jamilton!
It’s an unused office building in North Leatherhead that was sat empty and a generous company awarded it to us.
It’s the perfect venue to house our dance area “The Jam Place” upstairs and then use the ground floor “The Jam Space” for community projects in the area.
What’s new / changing for The Jam Place now you have your own place?
With this new building we are now going to become a charity. Our goal is to make classes affordable to all.
With our own space we can add even more classes and I won’t lie, Cass and I are excited that we can put up our own pictures, decorate in our own Jam style and make the building a home from home for our children…and adults!
It’s quite big premises what do plan to do with all the extra space you have?
Being awarded such a large building means we can spread the jam!! (See what I did?!)
The ground floor, which we have called ‘The Jam Space”, has allowed us to work with other cics and charities in the area to house wonderful community projects. North Leatherhead have been so welcoming and we are able to combine all of our skills to create even more opportunities in the Mole Valley borough and beyond.
You were originally based at Bourne Hall in Ewell and the new place is in North Leatherhead (not a million miles away) do you hope to still see students from the Epsom and Ewell area?
We are very very lucky to have a loyal Jamily (Jam and Family = Jamily!)
We have hired a few spaces over the years and our parents and children and then their siblings have followed us around.
Moving to North Leatherhead takes us out of the Epsom and Ewell borough but that doesn’t mean to say we don’t still welcome everyone with open jazz hands! We have people travel to us from as far as Morden, so we are not just limited to the one borough.
We do understand that for some people it might be hard to make their way over to North Leatherhead after school though. We have moved some times around on the timetable to accommodate the extra travel to the new building.
Moving to this borough and having a bigger space means we can welcome more people from the immediate area too, who we look forward to meeting.
Thanks for all of your support Dee!
Helen & Cass x
Super good luck guys! Find The Jam Place on Facebook and Instagram or visit the website here.
Dee xx
