Scheissegate II: Albert Verlinde finds Hannover poop incident 'kind of funny'

'We all shouldn't make it too big a deal.' Dixit musical producer Albert Verlinde, this afternoon (14 February) in the Max programme Villa VdB on Radio 1. He is referring to the commotion in Germany - and the Netherlands - over the mistreatment of a dance critic by star choreographer Marco Goecke. Verlinde: 'I actually liked it.'

With this putting into perspective, the counterpart of musical patron Joop van den Ende clearly deviates from the prevailing anger over the physical attack by the artistic director of the Hannover State Opera on the dance critic of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Or rather, he sides with the perpetrator of violence, who has since responded to his act himself, claiming that it was high time the 'hate profession' of critic finally got a licking. It turns out that the celebrated choreographer, who also associate choreographer is at Nederlands Dans Theater, has been "tormented" by the negative criticism of this journalist in particular for 20 years. 

Poor dachshund

Since we broke the news yesterday, more has become clear about what happened. Goecke, who takes his black-and-tan dachshund everywhere with him, had most likely not taken the critter's pooch with the sole purpose of mistreating his tormentor. Most likely, the critter had not been able to hold up the poo until outside, and the choreographer was on his way to a bin outside at intermission to dispose of the poo bag. 

So it could then be a more or less accidental encounter, in which the dance maestro ignited in anger, started cursing, failed to regain the desired humility and then reached for the nearest weapon: the poop-processed feed of his four-legged darling.

Workload

The action cannot but be characterised as utterly overwrought. Where others would turn to the editor-in-chief with a letter on legs, or - as happened in the Netherlands with a reactionary tease of Pierre Audi - would no longer hand out free tickets, he opted for bottling up and escalation. Perhaps the extreme workload was to blame. After all: two days after the Dutch premiere of his work in The Hague, which the reviewer had written about, there was already another premiere in Hanover, of another work. Even if that was a German premiere of a piece already previously made in the Netherlands, that's quite a lot for someone performing at top level.

In any case, that overload is no excuse for the violence he inflicted, for which an appropriate punishment will have to be handed out anyway. That he has been suspended by the Hanover State Opera for the time being, and the NDT is still considering measures, may already be a form of class justice, as reported here by festival director Erwin Roebroeks on Facebook: an employee with less reputation would have been fired long ago.

Trend?

The question remains whether this case is rightly getting attention, or whether it is - as Verlinde says - a funny incident being blown up: clearly, the relationship between art criticism and artists is strained. In my active time as an AD and GPD critic myself, I experienced it often enough that angry letters were sent to the newspaper. Fortunately, these were kept in balance with the fan mail received, so my work was not compromised.

Criticism from the field has never led to violence, while the Frankfurter Allgemeine already manages to report at least three cases where it came to physical threats in Germany. In the Netherlands, it was only Hein Janssen of the Volkskrant who was mistreated (a slap and severe humiliation: "On your knees!"), for which the actor in question was fined.

Whether German misbehaviour is a trend? We may find out after Albert Verlinde's next premiere. 

How the dog experienced all this is not known.