After dog excrement attack: Suspended ballet boss Goecke comments NDR.de – Culture

Two days after the evening of the premiere, events continue to cause waves: a ballet director smears feces on the face of a critic of the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (FAZ). Backstage, in the break between dance pieces. Wiebke Hüster, the attacked journalist, goes to the police and reports. The premiere night continues. The police are now investigating charges of insult and assault. And there are further consequences for the 50-year-old Goecke. The State Opera suspended him on Monday and also banned him from the house. Now, two days after the incident, Goecke, a renowned and excellent choreographer, is giving NDR Lower Saxony his view of things.

Goecke: “I can live with bad reviews”

He’s not really sorry for his attack. He was a bit scared though. But only the choice of means was “certainly not great,” says Goecke. But he justifies the attack with years of “extermination criticism,” as he calls it, by Hüster. “If you’re in public and see your work soiled by a journalist for years, then they say that’s the price of being a public figure. But at a certain point I have a different opinion,” says Goecke . Many other journalists from other areas that he knew shared his view that this type of criticism shows that Hüster is not interested in dance and does not love theater. He emphasizes that he has read many bad reviews about himself. “I can really live with that,” emphasizes Goecke. But the criticisms of the journalists Hüster are personal, and have been for 20 years. And he doesn’t want to be the only one who thinks so. “I know that 99 percent of dance professionals in this country have felt extremely hurt by this woman for years.”

“No hard-working person would put up with that in the long run”

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Falko Mohrs (SPD) speaks about the consequences of the dog excrement attack by ballet director Marco Goecke. 1 min

Finally, on that Saturday evening, he met Wiebke Hüster for the first time. He went to her, wanted to talk to her, the critic, about her criticism. He told her, “I’m human.” Her reaction: “Aggressive, arrogant, condescending,” says Goecke. Then he smeared the bag with his dachshund’s excrement, which he just wanted to dispose of, in Hüster’s face. And describes the act as a reaction to years of injuries that went beyond the normal level. “How would other people who work hard deal with being pelted with dirt like that?” he asks. And gives the answer himself: “No hard-working person would put up with that in the long run.”

And how does Wiebke Hüster see the events himself? She too had initially agreed to want to describe her view of things to NDR. But she later withdrew her promise.

Further information

2 mins

A scandal in the cultural scene – a journalist from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung had written about a performance. (02/12/2023) 2 mins

The choreographer smeared feces on a journalist’s face on a premiere evening in Hanover. (02/13/2023) more

The Staatstheater Hannover combines the three principles with three choreographies into one big ballet evening. more

According to the jury’s statement, his work crosses the entire spectrum of dance – from ballet to contemporary dance. more