The director of one of Germany’s leading ballet companies has been suspended from his post for attacking a critic of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) by rubbing dog feces on her face, according to the journalist and the newspaper’s report. Marco Goecke, who headed the Hanover Opera’s dance company until Monday, faced criticism during a performance after it published a negative opinion of another of his works. According to the newspaper report, he used the break to confront Wiebke Hüster. First he accused him of the criticism, then he opened a bag and rubbed the contents, his dog’s excrement, on his face.
The Hanover Opera announced this Monday that it would suspend Goecke “with immediate effect” and also ban him from entering the institution “to protect the ballet and the theater from any further incidents”. Police are investigating what happened after the journalist lodged a complaint at a police station in the city in the north of the country.
The “unpleasant incident”, as the FAZ describes it, happened on Saturday afternoon during the premiere of the ballet Faith-Love-Hope at the Hanover Opera. During the break, the chief choreographer and ballet director sought out the critic, who did not know him personally, in the foyer of the building. First he asked her what she was doing at the premiere. He then threatened her with “banning entry” to the opera and accused her of being responsible for canceling subscriptions. Eventually, he pulled out a bag of animal excrement, rubbed the contents all over her face, and left without being stopped. The newspaper describes what happened as a “humiliating physical assault” and an attempt to restrict “the freedom of art criticism”.
The choreographer Marco Goecke with his dog “Gustav” in a photo from his Instagram account.
The article that infuriated Goecke is a critique, published the same Saturday, of the piece In the Dutch Mountains, one of the choreographies he created for the Nederlands Dans Theater, the national dance company of the Netherlands, which is currently touring several country theaters. “When you look at it, you feel alternately mad and bored to death,” wrote Hüster about the performance.
According to the critic, Goecke, who was walking his dog at the time of the attack, surprisingly took the bag out of one of his trouser pockets. “When I realized what I had done, I started screaming,” he said. The theater’s spokeswoman helped her clean the bathroom and then escorted her to the police station, where she filed a complaint, which is being investigated for alleged bodily harm. The journalist assures that the choreographer prepared the attack and that it was not the product of an escape.
“She cheated on me for years too”
Far from apologizing, Goecke gave an interview to NDR television on Tuesday in which he assured that the critics had “thrown shit” at him for years. “If you stand in public and see your work tainted by a journalist for years, there will be people who will say that is the price of being a public figure. But I have a different opinion on that,” says a very calm Goecke, who is sitting on a park bench in Hanover.
“I know 99% of the dance professionals in this country have been extremely hurt by this woman for years,” he adds, who, like many of his publicity photos, is covered in sunglasses. There’s only one moment when he seems to have some regrets, saying that “perhaps the forms weren’t the most appropriate”. He admits to having resorted to something unpopular and assures: “I’ve never done anything like this and surprised myself.”
Goecke, 50, received the Federal Prize for Dance in Germany last year. He is one of the best-known choreographers in the country and has created more than 90 choreographies in more than 20 years of activity. His works can be found in the repertoire of companies all over the world, such as the Paris Opera Ballet, the National Ballet of Canada or the Monte Carlo Ballets. Director of the Hanover Ballet since 2019, he is known for always having his dachshund named Gustav with him. Numerous photos of the animal are circulating on his Instagram account, which, according to the Bild newspaper, should accompany him to a dinner with Carolina de Monaco, apparently a fan of this dog breed.
“We contacted the journalist immediately after the incident and apologized to her personally and publicly,” said Laura Berman, director of the Hanover Opera, on Sunday. He added that the case was under investigation and the institution decided this Monday to expel the choreographer. Frank Rieger, President of the German Association of Journalists in Lower Saxony, described the events as an “attack on press freedom”.
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