Helena-Mariana Reimann receives Ullo Toomi folk dance scholarship

Dance leader, choreographer and director Helena-Mariana Reimann has received the Ullo Toomi folk dance scholarship, ERR reported. The award was presented on the 124th anniversary of folk dance figure Ullo Toomi’s birth.

Karel Johannes Vähi, director of the Estonian Folk Dance and Folk Music Society, said Reimann had created numerous original dances over several decades. Her work has been highly rated in competitions and selected for dance festival programmes.

Reimann was the chief artistic director of the 2025 national dance festival Iseoma. This summer, she worked as a category leader on the organising team for the national men’s dance festival and led the youth and adult mixed groups team at the Võrafest gymnastics and folk dance festival.

She also served during the past season as a board member of the Estonian Folk Dance and Folk Music Society and led a working group focused on the role of folk dance in general education and hobby schools.

Vähi said that preserving the tradition of dance festivals was important to Reimann. He added that her determination, efforts to create meaningful pattern formations for dance festivals and development of original dances that challenge performers carried forward Toomi’s principles.

Reimann has worked with young people at the Sõleke dance ensemble for 33 years. Since 2011, she has participated as a director in every youth and national dance festival, creating dances and productions for different groups. She has also been part of festival production teams as a category leader, assistant to the chief artistic director and, in 2025, as chief artistic director.

The Ullo Toomi scholarship has been awarded since 1987 for outstanding work in Estonian folk dance. This year’s award was the 39th. Previous recipients include folk dance figures Maie Orav, Mait Agu, Ilma Adamson, Helju Mikkel and Ülo Luht.