German ballet director axed over dog feces attack on critic

The director of Hanover's State Opera, Laura Berman, told reporters on Thursday that ballet choreographer Marco Goecke's contract had been dissolved with immediate effect, following his suspension earlier in the week. 

Goecke had confronted a journalist after a show on Saturday night, who had written a critical review of his latest project, and smeared dog excrement on her in the foyer of the opera house with several people present.

"This ill-conceived attack on the journalist and person Wiebke Hüster went against many fundamental principles of the state theater, massively damaged the house's reputation, and not least also has legal consequences," Laura Berman said. 

"For this reason, we agreed in a detailed personal discussion to dissolve his [Goecke's] contract as ballet director with mutual consent and immediate effect," Berman said.

Goecke had been suspended and barred from the premises on Monday, with his employer also demanding he apologize, which he did on Tuesday.  

His deputy, Christian Blossfeld, will take over running the ballet company until a longer-term decision on his replacement is reached.

Falko Mohrs, the minister responsible for culture in the northern state of Lower Saxony where Hanover is located, also spoke about the incident.

"The immediate separation from Marco Goecke is unavoidable after his completely unacceptable behavior," Mohrs said. He also appeared to support not seeking to fire Goecke under German labor laws, saying that an immediate dissolution of his contract "has provided swift clarity for everyone." 

Goecke's repertoire will remain on show

Berman told reporters that the theater would continue to perform some of Goecke's shows in the future. 

"His works are in no way connected to these events and will remain in the state ballet's repertoire," she said. "We do not believe that the work of an artist should be totally damned on the basis of a single ill-conceived act — no matter how disgusting it might be." 

The 50-year-old Goecke is a renowned choreographer whose shows have been performed in many major European cities; he was among the winners of the German Dance Prize in 2022. 

In addition to stressing the seriousness of his actions, Berman also said Goecke is an "empathetic, considerate, humorous and sometimes very vulnerable person," with whom she had worked for several years without observing "any form of aggression on his side." 

She noted that some of his past work, most notably the "Thin Skin" ballet and a film of the same name, had explored some of what she called Goecke's "demons." 

"Yesterday in our personal discussion, I experienced a Marco Goecke who was completely devastated," she said.

Berman also appealed to the assembled journalists to consider the sometimes difficult modern relationship between art and art critics. 

"In today's society there's ever less serious interest in professional, nuanced reflection about art. Good, responsible criticism is in danger. Polarizing views get more attention, more clicks. I think we're all collectively responsible for solving this," Berman said, albeit again saying her beliefs on this issue "in no way excuse or justify" Goecke's actions.

She also mentioned the comparatively new phenomenon of some of the most fierce, often anonymous, criticism being published on social media nowadays. She said this can be "almost unbearable" for artists and that it had been a concern of hers for some time.

Goecke said attack was on impulse, critic believes it was premeditated

Goecke issued a written statement on Tuesday and also did an interview with regional public broadcaster NDR wearing dark sunglasses.

He apologized for his actions, saying his "method" of responding to the criticism was not appropriate. However, he also said the act had been an impulsive one, arguing that he had meant to simply take some of his old incontinent dog's poo out of the building when he then encountered Hüster in the foyer.

Hüster of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) on the other hand believes that Goecke's actions were premeditated. 

Speaking to DW on Tuesday, she also disputed Goecke's claim that she had repeatedly written negatively about him in recent years. 

"This is total nonsense. I am a serious journalist," she said. "In 17 years, I have written about Mr. Goecke's work just nine times and two of them were overwhelmingly positive." 

msh/rs (AFP, dpa, epd)