Daniel Hellmann
wpZimmer resident in 2019
Daniel Hellmann is a dance- and theatermaker, singer and performer. He is based in his hometown Zurich as well as in Berlin and studied philosophy, classical singing and theatre / performance in Zurich, Lausanne and Bern. After taking part in several opera productions in Switzerland, Belgium and Germany he founded 3art3 Company in 2012 in order to realize pieces that unite music, dance and theater. For the first 3art3 – project K. – a collaboration with the choreographer Quan Bui Ngoc – he won a prize from the Swiss Author Society and received a Cultural Award from the City of Zurich.
Since 2014 he created Untold with 3art3 and as a co-production with Les Ballets C de la B, with Matterhorn Produktionen the music-theatre piece Nach Lampedusa – Wandererfantasien about the Swiss asylum system and the interactive performances Full Service and THE_SPACE_BETWEEN. Hellmann’s solo performance Traumboy about male prostitution premiered in 2015 as a co-production with Gessnerallee Zürich and Festspiele Zürich and was invited to Swiss Selection in Avignon 2016. Daniel Hellmann’s work has been shown at festivals and theaters in Switzerland, France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, UK, Spain and in the USA. His newest work Requiem for a piece of meat (2017), a music-dance-performance about our contradictory relationships to animals, meat and death, has received the June Johnson Dance Prize and was selected for the Swiss Dance Days 2019.
Since 2018 Hellmann curates the Performing Arts for the gender & sexualities festival LA FÊTE DU SLIP in Lausanne.
projects
Traumboy
Daniel is a sex worker. In the solo performance Traumboy he reports on his experiences as a male prostitute. Without shame, honestly and interactively. He talks about the reasons for choosing this profession, describes his clients and their desires. The audience meets a young man who prostitutes himself deliberately. The only problem: the stigma that comes with it. Having sex with strangers for money is still considered a taboo.
Traumboy questions the double standards of our capitalistic and hypersexualized society. The focus on male prostitution allows to evade the customary narrative about exploitation and suffering of vulnerable women and addresses more subtle power relations.
The performer’s body turns into a projection surface for fears, fantasies and contradictions. He slips into different roles that he plays for his customers – or for the audience? With this ambiguous self-staging the spectators are challenged to scrutinize their sexual ideals and to take a close look at the sexual being that they consider themselves. Are the boundaries in your mind where you expect them?
credits
Concept & performance: Daniel Hellmann
Dramaturgy: Wilma Renfordt
Third eye: Ivan Blagajcevic
Set & costume design: Theres Indermaur
Sound design: Leo Hofmann
Light design: Gioia Scanzi
Production management: Daniela Lehmann
Tour management: Florence Francisco
Translation: Melanie Jame Wolf
Production: 3art3
Co-production: Theaterhaus Gessnerallee & Festspiele Zürich
With the support of Stadt Zürich Kultur, Fachstelle Kultur Kanton Zürich, Pro Helvetia Schweizer Kulturstiftung, Migros Kulturprozent, Nestlé Fondation pour l’Art, Schweizer Tanzarchiv – Preis für Videodokumentation, wpZimmer Antwerpen