When he confronted a writer for publishing a negative review of one of his performances, Marco Goecke was the ballet director at the Hanover State Opera. A German ballet choreographer has been fired for smearing dog feces on the face of a newspaper critic.
The opera house has now sacked him, citing the fact that his irresponsible behavior “seriously upset the audience” and “irritated the public.”
It claimed that he had “severely tarnished” the opera house’s reputation.
Saturday during the intermission of a triple bill of ballet, Mr. Goecke confronted dance writer Wiebke Hüster over her criticism of his most recent production, In The Dutch Alps.
In her evaluation, Ms. Hüster compared his performance to be “alternately driven mad and dead by boredom.”
Mr. Goecke threatened to ban her from the theater in the lobby and said that customers had canceled their season tickets due to her performance.
He then produced a bag of dog feces and applied it to her face.
Mr. Goecke had already been suspended by the Hanover State Opera, but on Thursday his contract was terminated “with immediate effect.”
In a statement, the head of the institution, Laura Berman, said she had apologized to Ms. Hüster and that she could not fathom what it must feel like to be humiliated in such a manner in public.
“Criticism is essential to the production and growth of art.”
Nonetheless, the opera house stated that it would distinguish between Mr. Goecke and his art, and that future performances of his ballets would remain on its schedule.
According to the New York Times, Mr. Goecke stated on Thursday that he had “sincerely apologized” for the incident and that what he had done was “really a terrible thing,” but that critics should not write in a “personal and cruel manner.”
Marco Goecke earlier told NDR that his dachshund produced the feces.
Ms. Hüster, a journalist for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, told the BBC that she was “stunned” by the “violent attack.”
“When I realized what had occurred, I screamed and became frantic… I can promise you that it was not an act of spontaneity; he planned it. I consider it to be an attack against journalistic freedom “She stated,
German authorities are still conducting an investigation into the incident.
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