A BALLET producer smeared dog faeces over a critic’s face after she wrote a scathing review saying she’d been “killed by boredom” watching a performance.
Marco Goecke, 50, reportedly carried out the filthy attack on reviewer Wiebke Huster in the Hanover State Opera’s crowded foyer on Saturday.
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Huster, a dance critic for the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) was attending the premiere of the ballet ‘Glaube – Liebe – Hoffnung’ (Faith – Love – Hope), which Goecke had co-choreographed.
During the interval, Goecke, who carries his dachshund Gustav around in his bag, initially threatened to ban Huster from the theatre.
He then removed a bag filled with faeces and smeared it on her face, FAZ reports.
His actions came after Huster penned a stern critique of Goecke’s new show In the Dutch Mountains, which was published by FAZ on Saturday.
The review claimed that watching the show, which had recently opened in The Hague’s Nederlands Dans Theater, was like being “alternately driven mad and killed by boredom”.
A police spokeswoman said the incident had been reported by the 57-year-old critic.
She added that samples of the “dog faeces” had not been secured by the authorities, who would have to rely on eyewitness testimony as they carried out an investigation into the alleged assault.
The opera house issued a statement and apologised for the episode, adding it was checking which steps to take against the director following the labour laws.
It did not give an account of what happened.
Laura Berman, the opera house’s artistic director said in a statement: “We contacted the journalist immediately after the incident and apologised to her personally and also publicly.
“We very much regret that our audience has been disturbed by this incident.”
The opera house has suspended with immediate effect its chief choreographer and director Goecke and also banned him from the venue until further notice.
It said in a statement Goecke’s “impulsive behaviour” went against their code of conduct and left the audience, staff members and the general public “extremely unsettled”.
The opera house added his behaviour had harmed its reputation.
It also demanded an apology from Goecke as well as an explanation for his actions before it will give information about further steps regarding the choreographer and director.
FAZ said: “This humiliating incident is not only an act of bodily harm but also an attempt to intimidate our free, critical view of art.”
Goecke has been the ballet director at the Hanover theatre since 2019 and won the German Dance Prize in 2022.
According to the opera house’s website, the next performance of Belief – Love – Hope in Hanover is set for February 24.
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Jon Rogers
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