German choreographer suspended after critic smeared in animal feces

BERLIN – A German newspaper critic smeared her face with animal feces by a ballet director in the city of Hannover after he apparently took offense at a review she wrote.

The Hanover State Opera House apologized for the incident and said on Monday that it was immediately suspending ballet director Marco Göcke.

The daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that a furious Haecke approached her dance critic Wibke Hüster during Saturday’s premiere break at the Hannover Opera House and asked what she was doing there. It stated that the two did not know each other personally.

The newspaper reported that Goeke, apparently provoked by a recent review she wrote of a production he staged at the Dutch government seat, The Hague, threatened to ban her from the ballet and accused her of being responsible for the people canceling season tickets to Hannover.

He then pulled out a paper bag filled with animal feces and smeared the contents on her face before leaving through the crowded theater lobby, the newspaper reported. According to the German news agency dpa, Huster identified the substance as dog feces and said she filed a criminal complaint.

In a statement posted on its website, the opera house said that Huster’s “personal integrity” had been violated “in an unspeakable way.” He said he contacted her immediately after the incident to apologize.

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It stated that Goecke’s “impulsive reaction” had violated the basic rules of the theater and that “he had done enormous damage to the Hanover State Opera and State Ballet”. As a result, the report says, he is being suspended from work and banned from attending the opera house until further notice.

Gekke was given the next few days to “comprehensively” apologize and explain himself to the theater’s management, “before further steps are taken,” he added.