Director smears dog faeces in critic’s face after she says audiences would ‘die of boredom’

One of Germany’s most prominent choreographers has been suspended after he smeared a critic with dog faeces who claimed his latest work would make audiences “die of boredom”.

Ballet director Marco Goecke reportedly accosted critic Wiebke Hüster during the intermission of a ballet premiere at Hannover Opera House on Saturday evening and threatened to throw her out of the building.

Ms Hüster, a theatre critic for the Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper, said that he accused her of penning personal attacks on artists.

After working himself up into a rage, he pulled a paper bag full of dog excrement from his pocket and smeared it across her face, the critic later claimed.

He then turned around and left through the packed foyer without anyone trying to stop him.

Ms Hüster said that she had seen Mr Goecke with his pet dachshund before the start of the performance.

“He rubbed the dog poo from the open side of the bag into my face,” she told a local newspaper.

“When I realised what he was doing I screamed,” she said, adding that the assault was “premeditated”.

The opera house has confirmed that the incident occurred and that dog excrement was involved.

Ms Hüster said that she immediately left the building and travelled to the nearest police station where she filed a criminal complaint.

Mr Goecke, 49, is one of Germany’s best-known choreographers and was last year awarded the German Dance Prize, the most prestigious award in the country’s ballet scene.

He appears to have taken umbrage at a withering review of his most recent work, which had been published earlier that day.

In the review, Ms Hüter called the work, titled In the Dutch Mountain, “an embarrassment and an impertinence” that had let down the talented cast of dancers.

Pointing out that the work had been inspired by views of the ocean from a hotel bedroom, Ms Hüster said that being in the audience felt like “watching the seaside from a guest house window for eternity… it will both drive you mad and make you die of boredom”.

The ballet director appeared to dig himself an even deeper hole on Monday when someone using his Instagram account doubled down on the assault.

“After 20 years of reading this crap, I had had enough,” one comment from his account claimed.

“Poor reviews don’t bother me but there are limits. No business owner would ever let that happen to him,” stated another comment from his account.

Older photos from his account show that Mr Goecke is fond of posting the latest antics of his pet dachshund Gustav.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung condemned the assault as an attack on press freedom.

The incident shows that the ballet director “thinks he is above all critical judgement and, in case of doubt, can prove himself right by using violence,” the newspaper wrote.

‘Thinks he is above all critical judgement’

He appears to have taken umbrage at a review Mr Hüster wrote of his most recent work, In the Dutch Mountains, which she described as “an embarrassment and an impertinence”.

Ms Hüster remarked that the performance, which was inspired by hours staring at the ocean at a seaside hotel, would “both drive you mad and make you die of boredom”.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung has described the assault as an attack on press freedom.

The incident shows that the ballet director “thinks he is above all critical judgement and, in case of doubt, can prove himself right by using violence”, the newspaper wrote.

The Hannover Opera House said that it was “extremely dismayed” and said that it had immediately apologised to the critic.

The opera house has now suspended Mr Goecke while it carries out an investigation into his actions.

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine, this is just the latest in a string of incidents which demonstrate a growing tendency among artists and actors to intimidate critics.

Karin Beier, the director of Hamburg’s play house, recently described critics as “s— on the sleeve of art,” the newspaper noted.

Last summer, an actor with a Berlin theatre threatened one critic that “your time is over, darling.”

Germany’s journalists’ union reacted by saying that: “An artist must endure criticism, even if it may seem excessive. Anyone who reacts to criticism with violence is not acceptable.”