Strictly speaking, Marco Goecke was not fired for smearing dog poo on a critical journalist's face after a bad review, rather he and Hanover's State Opera mutually agreed to dissolve his contract with immediate effect.
Choreographer Marco Goecke issued his apology three days after the incident, which occurred in the foyer of Hanover's opera house. Attacking the journalist with dog feces was "an overreaction," he said.
The ballet, choreographed by Marco Goecke, tells the story of a forbidden romance between a 15-year-old girl and an older, wealthy Chinese-Vietnamese man.