Ballet director smears dog excrement in critic’s face over review saying audiences will ‘be killed by boredom’

A German newspaper critic has been subject to a literal smear campaign, having dog excrement rubbed on her face after a ballet director apparently took offence to a review she wrote.

Police have opened an investigation, with the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reporting that Marco Goecke, ballet director of the Hannover State Opera, approached its dance critic, Wiebke Huester, during the interval of a premiere of a piece on Saturday and asked what she was doing there. The newspaper said that Mr Goecke, who apparently felt provoked by a recent review she wrote of a production he staged in the Dutch seat of government, The Hague, threatened to ban her from the ballet and accused her of being responsible for people cancelling season tickets in Hannover.

He then pulled out a paper bag with animal faeces and smeared Ms Huester’s face with the contents before making his way off through a packed theatre foyer, the newspaper. Ms Huester identified the substance as dog faeces and said she had filed a criminal complaint, the German news agency dpa reported.

The incident followed a negative review from Ms Huester of Mr Goecke’s new show In the Dutch Mountains, which was published in the FAZ on Saturday. Ms Huester wrote that watching the show, was like being “alternately driven mad and killed by boredom”.

In a statement posted on its website, the opera house said that Ms Huester’s “personal integrity” was violated “in an unspeakable way”. It said that it contacted her immediately after the incident to apologise.

It said that Mr Goecke’s “impulsive reaction” violated the ground rules of the theatre and that “he caused massive damage to the Hannover State Opera and State Ballet”. As a result, it said, he is being suspended and banned from the opera house until further notice.

Mr Goecke, a ballet director at the Hanover theatre since 2019, was the 2022 recipient of the German Dance prize. He has been given the next few days to apologize “comprehensively” and explain himself to theatre management “before further steps are initiated”, it added.

“This is not only about the future of Marco Goecke, but also about the future of the over 30-strong ballet ensemble,” the theatre said in a statement. “The theatre management has a duty of care towards every member of the ensemble.”

FAZ said of the incident: “This humiliating incident is not only an act of bodily harm but also an attempt to intimidate our free, critical view of art.”

Reuters and AP contributed to this report