Soya the Cow

Soya the Cow is a sex-positive, feminist, and vegan drag creature created by theater maker and activist Daniel Hellmann (Zurich). Through dance, song, and spoken performance, Soya challenges the binaries of gender and species while advocating for animal liberation, climate justice, and joy. Positioned between art and activism, utopia and parody, Soya's work examines veganism, speciesism, and feminism through embodied performance.

Since her debut in 2018 at the Animal Rights March in front of Berlin's Volksbühne, Soya the Cow has appeared in a wide range of artistic and public contexts, including the theater production Dear Human Animals (2020), the philosophical city walks Try Walking in My Hooves (2022), the electro-pop album Purple Grass (2021), the exhibition format Planet Moo (2022), and television appearances such as The Voice of Germany (2021). Soya is resident "house cow" at Tanzhaus Zürich, received a cultural award from the City of Zurich in 2023 and was awarded the Swiss Performing Arts Award in 2025.

Soya the Cow is part of Daniel Hellmann's interdisciplinary practice, which combines music, language, body, and movement to address desire, sexuality, and human and animal rights. Recent projects include Queere Tiere (2024), shortlisted for the Swiss Theater Encounter, and the ongoing development of De-Domestication (2025) with Brazilian artist Rafa Bqueer, a multimedia project investigating the links between monocultures, cattle farming, and colonial violence in the Amazon.