Daniel Hellmann

Daniel Hellmann (born 27 September 1985) is a Swiss performance artist. Following a career as an opera singer he has been making headlines since 2012 as a singer, dancer, choreographer and dramatist with his interdisciplinary works which radically question [ocial norms and power structures in the fields of sexuality, human rights, and animal rights.

Life and career

Early life and career in classical music Hellmann grew up in the Schwamendingen district of Zurich as the child of a psychotherapist and a lecturer of social pedagogy, who specialised in development psychology. In retrospect he described his liberal Jewish parents as "very open-minded". By his own account, Hellmann used to be «very shy» as a young pupil, but was already writing poems and engaging in the school drama group. Accordingly, he started taking courses in dancing at the age of six years and registered without the knowledge of his parents in the Zurich Boys' Choir, where he for the first time made friends. In contrast, he has described his time in secondary school as «a nightmare», since he was bullied for his homosexuality and his penchant for glamour.

After Matura Hellmann started studying philosophy at the University of Zurich, but quit after two years and instead started studying classical singing at the Lausanne Conservatory in 2006, supported by a scholarship from the Swiss Study Foundation. For excellent results in his Bachelor's degree as a bass-baritone he received an award from the Juchum foundation in 2008. In 2009, he participated in the Aspen Music Festival. In the following years, he sang in various opera productions in his native Switzerland as well as in Belgium and Germany. In 2011, he earned his Master of Arts (MA) in Lausanne.

Career in interdisciplinary arts and as an activist After two decades with a focus on classical music, Hellmann moved away from opera and towards motion theater and dance. He later explained how he felt that the mere interpretation of other people's works was too limiting and that the themes of opera were too far away from his own life and reality. According to media reports, the title was an abbreviation for collective (Kollektiv in German) or camaraderie (Kameradschaft in German). As in an archaic kind of ecstasy, it dealt with group dynamics, violence and love. The debut of the company received the award of recognition from the city of Zurich as well as an award by the association of Swiss writers. In the same year, Hellmann collaborated with Swiss theater director Ursina Greuel and pianist Samuel Fried to create Nach Lampedusa – Wandererfantasien ("To Lampedusa – Fantasies of a Wanderer"), a music-theatre piece about the situation of asylum seekers in Switzerland. Hong Kong, Japan, the Philippines, Spain, Thailand Hellmann offered to by-passers to execute any service to them, at once and on-site in a tent, provided that both sides could agree on the conditions within the applicable legal framework and on the price. He executed altogether 665 services and thus earned the equivalent of €8,776. However, in the end he was barely asked for sexual services. as a male prostitute he confronted his audiences with the stereotypes surrounding sex work The solo performance, which was a mix of fiction and documentation, and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. While speaking out clearly against forced prostitution, Hellmann strongly argued against the quasi-automatic equation of sex work and human trafficking by asking: «Is it that the sex is dirty or isn't it rather that the money is dirty?» From 2018 until 2020, Hellmann also curated the performing arts section of la Fête du Slip, an interdisciplinary gender and sexualities festival in Lausanne. During research for the production of Requiem for a piece of meat he read the book Artgerecht ist nur die Freiheit ("Only freedom is species-appropriate") by Turco-German writer Hilal Sezgin and became vegan. The performance, which combined historical church music and contemporary dance, was awarded the June Johnson Dance Prize, And in 2021, he sang his version of the a-ha's hit Take On Me on German TV at the talent show The Voice of Germany. Faced with criticism from the animal rights movement that he culturally appropriated the identity of a cow Hellmann moved from Berlin to the animal sanctuary Hof Narr in Egg near Zurich during a lockdown of the COVID-19 pandemic to live for several months with retired livestock.