Ballet director and choreographer Marco Goecke's anger was raised after dance critic Wiebke Hüster gave his previous performance "In the Dutch Mountains" a bad review.
During the premiere of his latest set, Hüster was on hand and during the break Goecke shoved a bag of his dog's feces into her face.
- Of course, it is not socially accepted to resort to such funds and I have never done anything similar.
Of course I'm a little shocked at myself, says Goecke to the German NDR.
Marco Goecke believes that his actions are not about him not being able to handle a bad review, he has read many such, he says.
According to him, it is about her criticism being personal and destructive.
- When your work is smeared by a journalist for several years, then they say that is the price of being a public figure.
But it comes to a point when I don't agree, he says.
Groecke has thus not apologized, instead the state opera in Hanover has had to do so.
Bubbly for a longer time
Goecke has been suspended from his job and Hüster has reported the incident to the police.
He has been criticized from both political and journalistic quarters and many are now demanding his permanent resignation.
- This has become a question of free speech versus the view that authors and artists have of their own works;
that they are above any kind of criticism.
This violent attack on free speech has become a manifestation of something that has been bubbling for a long time in Germany, says Christoffer Wendick.
Hüster's colleagues at the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung have written an article that raises the issue of free speech.
- They gave several examples from the last few years where artists and authors have given in to critics in a way that they believe is completely unacceptable and, by extension, led to a climate where this kind of event can occur, says Christoffer Wendick.