Ballet director smears dog poop on critic’s face over bad review, under investigation

A renowned director of a German ballet company has been suspended from his job and is being investigated by the police after smearing dog poop on a journalist’s face over a bad review.

Marco Goecke, the head of Hanover State Opera’s ballet company attacked Wiebke Hüster of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) on Sunday after the critic wrote about the “boring” and “disjointed” show, according to a Guardian report on Monday.

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Goecke reportedly attacked Hüster verbally before pulling out a bag of dog feces from his pocket and rubbing the contents in her face.

Fifty-year-old Goecke trained at the royal conservatory in The Hague and has been director of the Hanover’s ballet company since 2019.

Goecke reportedly used the feces of his pet dachshund that were collected minutes prior to the attack

In Hüster’s description, Goecke “suddenly pulled the bag from his pocket. With the open side of the bag, he rubbed the dog excrement in my face. When I felt what he had done, I screamed,” the Guardian reported citing the journalist.

In shock, Hüster was helped by a member of the opera house’s press office to clean her face in a nearby bathroom, the British paper said. She then reportedly drove to a police station in central Hanover where a case was filed.

Goecke reportedly linked the bad review to a drop in memberships at the opera house. He also reportedly threatened to ban her from the opera house during the altercation.

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