Double Track

original version1986

 remake 1999

 remake 2009

 remake 2025

Choreography and concept:

Beppie Blankert

Music and concept:

Louis Andriessen

Text:

Samuel Becket

"Text for nothing no.7"

 

Everyone knows the feeling of wanting to disappear, of not being here at this moment, out of fear or shame or sadness or uncertainty. That feeling was the reason for the dance performance Dubbelspoor, a performance about waiting, or more precisely: the moment before you make an important decision, with the appearance and disappearance of a second figure as the 'coup de theatre'.

What happens when you wait for a train that never stops, without knowing your destination? Is that actually you sitting there on the platform? Where did that other person suddenly come from? Is that you perhaps? Where are we here and where are we going?

Dubbelspoor (concept and choreography Beppie Blankert, concept and composition Louis Andriessen, 'Text for nothing #7' by Samuel Beckett) was made three times, for two women in 1986, two men in 2000 and a man and a woman in 2010.

Now, in 2025, it is 39 years after the first version of Dubbelspoor and the wait continues. The two original performers (Carolien Dokter and Beppie Blankert) are still sitting on the bench in a deserted station waiting for the train that never stops.

Beppie Blankert’s Double Track makes disorientation a pleasure. As danced by two women it astonished American audiences in 1988…. It proved equally surprising performed by two men.

Jack Anderson in The New York Times

This visual masterpiece…. has been reinvented for a male cast….For all the theatrics she employs, Blankert’s movement is crisp, repetitive and always exhilarating.

Gia Kourlas in Time Out

Performances 2025:

Spring Festival Utrecht

27 mei
28 mei

Bellevue Amsterdam

11 juni 20:30
12 juni 17:30
12 juni 20:30
13 juni 17:30
13 juni 20:30

Nederlandse Dansdagen Maastricht

3 oktober
4 oktober matinee
4 oktober
5 oktober
5 oktober matinee

Korzo Den Haag

T.B.A.

It contains one of the supreme theatrical surprise effects of my experience. I think Double Track is completely timeless….

Christopher Hunt interviewed by Kate Mattingly in The New York Times

The illusions of this piece are remarkable. Beyond that, Blankert’s invention of ideas is just as intriguing.

Nancy Gilson in The Columbus Dispatch

No one who sees "Dubbelspoor" will henceforth look at a mirror, a TV, a computer monitor or, for that matter, a stage performance, in quite the same way as before. In no small manner "Dubbelspoor" is a revelatory, paradigm-shifting experience.

Seth Rogovoy in The Berkshire Eagle

See more reviews on line:

The best of 2000

Time Out New York

Looking in a Giant Mirror

by Jack Andersen, at the New York Times

Made for Two Women, Remade for Two Men

by Kate Mattingly, at the New York Times

Looking for mr. Black and mr. Beige

by Chris Dohsein at The Dance Insider, flash review

Double Track

by Anonymus, at InnerArt.com

P2P: Person-to-Person Business

by Marc Albion, at Fastcompany.com