'If an NDT dancer had done this, they would have been thrown out on the street immediately.' Much anger and incomprehension on the Instagram account of leading Nederlands Dans Theater, after the company announced it was continuing its collaboration with Marco Goecke. Goecke, for years associate choreographer at the Hague-based company, came into disrepute for soaping a reviewer of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung with a fresh turd from his dachshund Gustav.
The air now appears to have cleared, the company states: 'We have always enjoyed working with Marco over the past ten years. This was also the case during the last production process. The entire NDT team is therefore touched by the situation. A broad and difficult conversation in our company and the fact that Marco is accountable for his act have made us decide that we will continue the Dutch tour of In the Dutch Mountains.'
No excuses
The outcry following this wiedergutmachung has to do with the content of Goecke's apology, which upon closer inspection are no excuses at all. Indeed, Marco Goecke reveals that while his behaviour may have been transgressive, it is nothing compared to the crimes committed by journalism against him and those around him. After this sentence: "I would like to sincerely apologise to all involved, first and foremost to Ms. Hüster, for my absolutely unacceptable action. In retrospect, I clearly realise that this was a shameful act in the heat of the moment and an overreaction.' follows a 'Nevertheless'. And that 'Nevertheless' actually means: 'I was right.' What follows is a whole discourse on how badly he suffers from dance criticism and asks for understanding for his action.'
Call for violence against journalists
That NDT is content with this defence, which can also be read as a call for more frequent use of force against journalists, is incomprehensible. It is not only the numerous commenters on Instagram that think so, the Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung is also furious. The publisher of the quality newspaper let it be known that the newspaper has been writing about Goecke since 2015: 'He should not exaggerate so much. Goecke has performed more than 70 choreographies in that time. Our critic enthusiastically praised two of them, both in 2021. Seven times, on the other hand, she was critical, bored with his pieces, did not find his tendency to make the dancers tremble interesting. Where were the "insult", the " humiliation", the "harassment", the "business damage" that Goecke now talks about in his apology? Wherein, he thinks, lies the task of criticism? He hides the fact that it does not simply raise or lower its thumbs at will, and thus hides the fact that in criticism arguments for aesthetic judgements are made.'
Artist legend
The newspaper concludes, "He tells us the artist legend of the sensitive artist who was hounded by insensitive criticism until his collar burst. That, and not the request for an apology, is what his press statement is about. That he sincerely wants to apologise to Wiebke Hüster is not accompanied by ever larger and more baseless accusations against her. That is why we take the liberty of believing that his sincerity is a show, and not even a good one.'
Nederlands Dans Theater should think twice about its future with this assailant.
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