Hannover Opera suspends ballet director for scrubbing dog droppings from critical journalist

• Violence on stage The Jan Fabre case

The Hannover Opera has suspended the director of its ballet, choreographer

, for smearing his dachshund droppings on Wibke Hüster, a journalist for the culture section of the

(

) newspaper who had allegedly doubted his talent for years.

"I can live with the negative reviews just fine, but

and have been for 20 years. I know 99% of the ballet dancers in this country who

for years," Goecke, one of the most important choreographers in the country and with numerous awards to his credit, is justified.

The clash occurred in the crowded lobby of the Staatsoper, during an intermission in the performance of

(Faith, Love, Hope), a choreography premiered in The Hague and which the FAZ critics

as

.

"After 20 years of reading this shit, my limit had been exceeded," Goeke explained on Instagram.

According to her version, when she saw Hüster in the hall,

.

"I am a human being", she told her, but she reacted "aggressive, arrogant, condescending".

The choreographer then took out of her pocket the bag with the excrement she had previously collected from her dog and smeared it on her face.

"It's been years of deadening criticism. When you're in the public eye and you see your work sullied by a journalist for so long, it's said that's the price of being a public figure. But I don't agree."

The

has closed ranks with its Hübster and has described the incident with another version: Goecke approached Hüster in a bad way to ask him what he was doing at the premiere.

She first threatened to ban her from entering the Hannover Opera and

Increasingly agitated, Goecke finally became violent: he took out a paper bag with animal excrement and threw its contents into the journalist's face.

Carrying them, he made his way unimpeded through the packed hall.

"This humiliating act is not only an act of bodily harm, but also an attempt to intimidate our free and critical vision of art. Goecke's transgression reveals the

", the newspaper stated.

"With the open end of the bag, she rubbed dog droppings all over my face. When I felt what she was doing, I screamed," the reviewer said.

After the attack, Hüster cleaned himself in the toilets and drove to a police station, where he filed a complaint for assault and insults.

"That have never happened to me".

Goecke also relativizes this statement: "He also threw shit at me for years."

The incident expresses in a hooligan way what is now apparently often thought and said about critics and critics in art circles.

In October 2021, the artistic director of Hamburg's Schauspielhaus, Karin Beier, told

what she thought of critics and reviews in general: They were "shit up art's sleeve."

In September 2022, actor Benny Claessens savagely insulted an unwelcome critic as mentally disturbed and threatening him in a gangster tone:

. "

And even senior indie scene officials courted by cultural politics, such as Matthias Lilienthal and Amelie Deuflhard, gleefully ostracized critics as outdated and regressive.

Hannover Opera artistic director Laura Berman reported that the Hannover State Opera was "shocked" by the incident and would now "

".

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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