German ballet director who smeared critic with faeces sacked

A German ballet choreographer who smeared dog faeces on the face of a newspaper critic has been sacked.

Marco Goecke was the ballet director at the Hanover State Opera when he confronted a journalist for writing a bad review about one of his shows.

The opera house has now fired him, saying his "irresponsible actions have deeply unsettled the audience" and "irritated the public".

He had "massively damaged" the opera house's reputation, it added.

During the interval of a ballet triple bill on Saturday, Mr Goecke challenged dance critic Wiebke Hüster over a review she had written about his latest show, In The Dutch Mountains.

Ms Hüster's review had described his show as like being "alternately driven mad and killed by boredom".

In the foyer of the theatre Mr Goecke threatened to ban her from the theatre and said that people had cancelled their season tickets because of her piece.

He then produced a bag of dog excrement which he smeared over her face.

The Hanover State Opera had already suspended Mr Goecke but on Thursday announced his contract was ending "with immediate effect".

"I cannot even begin to imagine what it must feel like to be humiliated like that in public," the institution's director Laura Berman said in the statement, saying she had apologised to Ms Hüster.

"Criticism is important for the creation and development of art."

But the opera house said it would distinguish between Mr Goecke and his work - and that reruns of his ballets would still feature on its programme in the future.

According to the New York Times, Mr Goecke said on Thursday he had "apologised deeply" for the incident, and what he did was "truly an awful thing" - but that critics should not write in "a personal and hateful way".

The faeces was made by his dachshund, Mr Goecke previously told broadcaster NDR.

Ms Hüster, who writes for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper, told the BBC she was in "shock" after the "brutal attack".

"When I realised what happened, I screamed, I panicked... I can assure you that it was not an impulsive act - he had planned this. I consider it an act against the freedom of [the] press," she said.

The incident is still being investigated by German police.