PNB: 2024-25 season

[Fosca]

4 hours ago, Drew said:

But this guy never took and was never made to take even an intermission

Drew, you don't know Marco Goecke's personality except from what was written in German newspapers, do you? And you don't know Wiebke Hüster, the critic, who has earned, to put it mildly, few respect among German dance directors and among her own colleagues. No, I don't want to justify Goecke's behaviour in any way, but there is a huge, long background to this story.  I just think it's very hard to judge people with words like "and was never made to" without knowing them, their ethics and their work. 

 

[Drew]

2 hours ago, Fosca said:

Drew, you don't know Marco Goecke's personality except from what was written in German newspapers, do you? And you don't know Wiebke Hüster, the critic, who has earned, to put it mildly, few respect among German dance directors and among her own colleagues. No, I don't want to justify Goecke's behaviour in any way, but there is a huge, long background to this story.  I just think it's very hard to judge people with words like "and was never made to" without knowing them, their ethics and their work. 

 

It is finally not his personality that concerns me, but his actions and his words in this episode and a ballet world willing to overlook them almost as soon as they occurred. (The phrase “and was never made to” was directed at the ballet world. But I do remember that he lost a position.) 

Yes, I know this story from the press. I still consider the reference to Hüster, whatever her faults may be, a deflection.  And if you were to persuade me that she was the nastiest and most unqualified ballet critic that ever lived, then I would still consider it a deflection or, worse, victim blaming. I understand that you want to give me context, but it particularly offended me when Goecke himself turned his (non) apology into a verbal attack on her. Had he indeed merely verbally attacked her at, say, a press conference, as opposed to physically attacking her, I might question his professionalism but I might also have had some sympathy at his lashing out.

I will say that if he has since authored a more thoughtful and self-reflective apology—one that doesn’t allude to Hüster’s faults or claim grandiosely to be taking action on behalf of artists—then that might make a better impression on me than his earlier “apology” and I would be happy to be made aware of it.

Since I have only seen a bit of Goecke’s work and that via video, I have also been trying to imagine whether my views would change if Goecke were my favorite choreographer. I don’t believe they would change, but the balance of regret vs. irritation in my feelings about the episode and how lightly it has been taken might be different. 
 

 

Edited September 10 by Drew

[volcanohunter]

Drew has already made this point more eloquently on a different thread, but if Goecke is so universally admired by dancers and artistic directors, and Hüster is so universally disliked by her fellow critics, who, unlike her, admire Goecke’s work, then his decision to physically attack his single detractor seems especially puerile, narcissistic and tetchy.

[Helene]

4 hours ago, Fosca said:

Drew, you don't know Marco Goecke's personality except from what was written in German newspapers, do you? And you don't know Wiebke Hüster, the critic, who has earned, to put it mildly, few respect among German dance directors and among her own colleagues. No, I don't want to justify Goecke's behaviour in any way, but there is a huge, long background to this story.  I just think it's very hard to judge people with words like "and was never made to" without knowing them, their ethics and their work. 

 

“never took and was never made to take an intermission” has nothing to do with his personality. You don’t have to know someone’s personality to see publicly facing professional consequences or the lack of them.

 

[volcanohunter]

I was working in Europe prior to the pandemic, and I saw Goecke’s works performed by multiple companies in multiple countries. I stand by my opinion that watching Goecke’s pieces feels like having a hole drilled into my skull. I can understand completely why Hüster might have been critical, because I was desperate for the pieces to end.

[Jayne]

You couldn’t pay me to sit through another Goecke piece.  We decided not to do a full season this year because there are too many recent repeats of things we don’t like, or feel unenthusiastic about.  Instead we are looking at the Meany dance season.    
 

 

Edited September 16 by Jayne