«Requiem for a piece of meat»: 3art3 company, Daniel Hellmann
June Johnson Dance Prize 2015
“Requiem for a piece of meat” explores the extremes of human nature, from the sublime to the repellent. Rituals of religious sacrifice and early music combine with experimental dance in a modern slaughterhouse atmosphere to create a singular, dynamic, audiovisual experience that blends spiritual quest, hypnotic trance and deep meditation. As the performance begins, it is unclear who is performer and who is spectator. Finally, five dancers and a chorus of some ten singers merge into a single unit – flesh on flesh, breath on breath.
3art3 Company was founded in 2012 by the singer, performer, dance and theatre practitioner Daniel Hellmann as a collective to produce multi-disciplinary projects. Hellmann was born in 1985 and lives in Zurich and Berlin. He studied philosophy at the University of Zurich, classical singing at the University of Music Lausanne and theatre/performance at the Bern University of the Arts. The company’s first project, entitled “K.”, came about in 2012 as a collaboration with the Vietnamese choreographer Quan Bui Ngoc in association with the programmers’ fund of Reso, Dance Network Switzerland. Ngoc and Hellmann continued their collaboration in 2014 with their second project “Untold”. In 2013, 3art3 Company received the City of Zurich culture award for “K”.
Beate Engel, Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation:
“Daniel Hellmann has already achieved remarkable success with his group 3art3 Company, which he founded in 2012. Its multidisciplinary line-up produces works on current topics featuring an original and thrilling interplay of dance, performance and music. Physical exertion and a high level of technical precision interweave to create images with a lasting impact. The award-winning ‘Requiem for a piece of meat’ combines historical sacred music with contemporary dance to investigate the human body between life and death, in its everyday functions and mystical flights – singing, dancing, eating, naked.”
