Daniel Hellmann
Daniel Hellmann, aka Soya the Cow, born in Zurich in 1985 is a Swiss singer, dancer, theater artist and multidisciplinary performer. After studying philosophy in Zurich, he graduated from Lausanne with a degree in classical singing (bass-baritone), which was followed by a brilliant operatic career spanning two decades. Later, since 2012, he chose to become a theatrical performer; this new phase has seen the emergence of numerous, often award-winning works. Hellmann conceives his artistic activity as a form of interdisciplinary activism. His projects critically thematize social rules and power relations in the sphere of sexuality and in the fields of human and animal rights.
Her interactive performances include “Full Service” (2014) with hundreds of performances worldwide and the solo performance “Traumboy” (2015) dedicated to male sex work (chosen for the Sélection Suisse in Avignon and the Swiss Selection in Edinburgh). In 2019, he and Anne Welenc created the female counterpart “Traumgirl,” the third production on the topic of sex workers that premiered in August 2019 in the renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Since 2017, she has been increasingly concerned with the relationships between humans and animals. For his music-theater performance, “Requiem for a piece of meat” (2017), he was awarded the June Johnson Dance Prize and invited to Swiss Dance Days 2019. With his Alter Ego, “Soya The Cow,” a kind of sexually-chauvinist, feminist and vegan “drag queen” cow, he created the One-Cow-Show “Dear Human Animals” (2020) and the music album “Purple Grass” (2021). In 2022, she traveled the length and breadth of the United States in the guise of “Soya the Cow,” with the solo performance of “Planet Moo,” as well as various performances and militant activities. As “Soya the (House) Cow,” he established a close collaboration with the Tanzhaus Zurich. In 2023 he was designated an Associate Artist by the Schweizer Theatertreffen, where he presented an artistic itinerary “Try Walking in My Hooves” that was later revived in Amsterdam, Newcastle, Paris, Geneva, Zurich, San Francisco, Hong Kong and many other cities. Alongside these individual works, he created in 2014, with Ursina Greuel and Samuel Fried, the piece “Nach Lampedusa – Wandererfantasien” about the situation of migrants in Switzerland, and in 2019, together with Layton Lachman and Anne Welenc, the performance “All In” dedicated to three-way love relationships. In 2018-20121, he directed the “performing arts” section of the “Fête du Slip. Gender and Sexualities Festival” in Lausanne.
Her interactive performances include “Full Service” (2014) with hundreds of performances worldwide and the solo performance “Traumboy” (2015) dedicated to male sex work (chosen for the Sélection Suisse in Avignon and the Swiss Selection in Edinburgh). In 2019, he and Anne Welenc created the female counterpart “Traumgirl,” the third production on the topic of sex workers that premiered in August 2019 in the renowned Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Since 2017, she has been increasingly concerned with the relationships between humans and animals. For his music-theater performance, “Requiem for a piece of meat” (2017), he was awarded the June Johnson Dance Prize and invited to Swiss Dance Days 2019. With his Alter Ego, “Soya The Cow,” a kind of sexually-chauvinist, feminist and vegan “drag queen” cow, he created the One-Cow-Show “Dear Human Animals” (2020) and the music album “Purple Grass” (2021). In 2022, she traveled the length and breadth of the United States in the guise of “Soya the Cow,” with the solo performance of “Planet Moo,” as well as various performances and militant activities. As “Soya the (House) Cow,” he established a close collaboration with the Tanzhaus Zurich. In 2023 he was designated an Associate Artist by the Schweizer Theatertreffen, where he presented an artistic itinerary “Try Walking in My Hooves” that was later revived in Amsterdam, Newcastle, Paris, Geneva, Zurich, San Francisco, Hong Kong and many other cities. Alongside these individual works, he created in 2014, with Ursina Greuel and Samuel Fried, the piece “Nach Lampedusa – Wandererfantasien” about the situation of migrants in Switzerland, and in 2019, together with Layton Lachman and Anne Welenc, the performance “All In” dedicated to three-way love relationships. In 2018-20121, he directed the “performing arts” section of the “Fête du Slip. Gender and Sexualities Festival” in Lausanne.
