German ballet director ‘smeared dog faeces on critic’s face’ after bad review

Marco Goecke allegedly confronted Wiebke Huster at Hanover State Opera, furious at her verdict on a previous show

The director of a leading German ballet company has been suspended from his post and is being investigated by police after allegedly smearing a critic's face with his dog's excrement at the premiere of his new show after she described one of his productions as boring" and disjointed".

Marco Goecke, the head of Hanover State Opera's ballet company, has also been barred from the opera house, a spokesperson confirmed on Monday afternoon, after he confronted Wiebke Huster, the ballet critic of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), in the interval of his latest show on Sunday night.