The Jasmin Vardimon Company brought its transformative production NOW (2024) to Istanbul and Adana in Spring 2026, captivating audiences across five completely sold-out performances. In just one week, more than 5,200 people experienced the work, a testament to Jasmin Vardimon’s artistry.
From the moment audiences arrived, the Company created an atmosphere that lingered far beyond the final bow. The response was immediate and overwhelming, with social media filling up with praise reviews, reflections, and heartfelt thanks poured in for the dancers, the behind-the-scenes team, and, of course, Jasmin herself.
This international tour was more than just performances; it was a powerful act of artistic connection. And the conversation continues. We’re excited to share a standout feature from BirGün in response to the Company’s visit to Türkiye.
‘NOW’: The promise of freedom has crumbled, and love is in rebellion.
Jasmin Vardimon Company’s work “NOW” makes visible the increasingly empty promise of freedom in democracy, the authoritarian world, and the individual’s confinement through body, rhythm, and relationships. The work ignites sparks of hope on stage by emphasizing that freedom can be won through collective struggle.
Jasmin Vardimon and her company, Jasmin Vardimon Company, a prominent name in contemporary dance and theatre from England, presented three performances at the Lütfi Kırdar Congress Center in Istanbul to celebrate their 25th anniversary. Visiting Turkey for the first time, the company created ‘NOW,’ a work combining excerpts from their repertoire, framing time not merely as a flowing process, but as a direct field of political tension. The ‘now,’ which gives the work its title, is trapped between past and future, transforming from an individual experience on stage into an expression of collective impasse. This transformation is conveyed to the audience through a simple yet striking visual spectacle, while clearly communicating the message: There is no salvation alone, either all together or none of us!
The work, while progressing through deepening social divides, political unrest, and hardening borders, also dramatically questions the promise of freedom inherent in democracy. The democratic order, founded on the claim of placing the individual at the center of decision-making processes, is reinterpreted in ‘NOW.’ The bodies on stage are not subjects; they appear as beings who are directed, restricted, seeking freedom, and excluded. This is the theatrical response to an era where the illusion of representation has replaced participation.
Vardimon’s choreographic style relies on the powerful symbolic connotations produced by the body. However, this body is not free; it exists within a movement pattern that is interrupted, directed, and trapped in repetition. Bodies sometimes become mechanistic, sometimes repeat the same movement as if aligned by an authority. This repetition is not merely an aesthetic choice; it transforms into an obsessive bodily expression of obedience and control. As the individual moves away from being the subject of their own actions, freedom ceases to be a right and becomes a postponed possibility. The stage design and repetitive movements make the individual feel besieged not only physically but also politically.
This pressure is established not only through movement but also through sound. The music accompanying the figures representing authority progresses with a militaristic rhythm; it surrounds the bodies, creating a constantly repeating, almost obsessive structure. As the rhythm advances, the space for movement on stage narrows; the music transforms into an invisible control mechanism of the choreography.
At this point, the choreography also brings discipline and control mechanisms to the stage. The bodies are not only under pressure; they move as if they have internalized this pressure. Power ceases to be a force imposed from the outside and takes root within the body. This creates a powerful scene demonstrating how fascist and authoritarian regimes shape not only the public sphere but also the individual’s mind, gaze, and movement.
WHO HOLDS THE POWER?
The work also reveals this state of entrapment through interpersonal relationships. Male-female relationships are portrayed not only as an emotional bond but also as a field of power and representation. A tension reminiscent of the gaze regime is felt in the encounters on stage: Who is looking, who is being seen, who initiates the action, who ends it? These questions establish powerful layers of meaning, implying that relationships are not based on equality but on an invisible but rather rigid hierarchy.
However, the work does not reproduce this hierarchy; on the contrary, it creates ruptures within it. In one of the most striking scenes, a heart appearing on the man’s body with a laser light is transferred towards the heart of the woman beside him. This gesture establishes love not as a relationship of possession, but as a transformation through the contact of two beings, a kind of “oneness.” Yet, this closeness does not offer a completely liberated space; it reminds us that the relationship, like the body, is fragile, temporary, and changeable.
‘NOW’, in this respect, is not merely a dance work; it is a direct intervention into the mood of the age. On Vardimon’s stage, ‘now’ is not a fleeting moment; it is a space woven with confinement, control, uncertainty, and ambiguity. And the question left for the audience is clear: In this ‘now’ where we think we are free, how much say do we really have? Because the problem is no longer the limitation of freedom; it is that it has already been ‘silently’ eliminated.
This was the Company’s first trip to Turkey, and we are hopeful it won’t be the last. To follow the Company’s touring schedule, sign up to our mailing list and keep an eye on our on tour page.
This international tour was supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.
