German ballet director fired over feces attack on critic

BERLIN (AP) — The Hannover State Opera says it’s ending its contract with ballet director Marco Goecke after he smeared dog feces on the face of a newspaper critic whose reviews he’d taken exception to. Goecke was suspended from his post as ballet chief earlier this week after the Saturday attack on dance critic Wiebke Huester of German daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The confrontation took place during the interval of a premiere at the opera house. Goecke later issued a statement describing his behavior as “absolutely unacceptable” but said he had acted ”in the heat of the moment” and while suffering from “nervous strain” resulting from two premieres in quick succession.