Ballet Companies Will Continue To Perform Work By Goecke After Assault Charge

Marco Goecke, a renowned German choreographer, has been terminated as Ballet Director at The Hanover State Opera after smearing his aging dachshund's feces on the face of a dance critic.

Laura Berman, the opera house's artistic director, announced at a news conference that Goecke was leaving his post "by mutual agreement," the New York Times. However, Goecke's career is far from over.

Hanover State Ballet will continue to perform his work, and the Dutch company he works for will also perform his pieces across the Netherlands in the coming weeks. "I do not believe in cancel culture..." said Berman.

Goecke, who has been charged with assault, apologized deeply for the incident, calling it "truly an awful thing." Despite losing his job, Goecke said he still believed in freedom of speech and welcomed constructive criticism.

Goecke reportedly confronted the critic, Wiebke Hüster, during the intermission of another performance.

Ms. Hüster's original review of the production, In The Dutch Mountains, was described in the review as "alternately driven mad and killed by boredom". The critic told the BBC she was in "shock" following the "brutal" attack.

The BBC reports that Mr Goecke said "he believed the damning review had cost the Hanover Opera House subscriptions and threatened to ban her from the opera house during the confrontation."

The Hanover State Opera said Mr. Goecke "extremely unsettled the audience, the employees of the house and the general public and thus massively damaged the State Ballet."

Goecke has been the ballet director at the Hanover theatre since 2019, and was the 2022 recipient of the German Dance Prize.