Viljandi-born ballet star Tiit Helimets has danced his way from the Estonian National Ballet to San Francisco – and is now turning his homeland’s history into movement, myth and colour.
Born in Viljandi, Estonia, Helimets discovered ballet at an early age while watching cultural programmes on television. His mother noticed his interest and, when he was ten, took him to Tallinn for talent auditions – one for ballet and another for opera. He was accepted into the ballet programme immediately, and his path was set.
From Tallinn to San Francisco
After training at the Tallinn Ballet School, Helimets began his career as a soloist with the Estonian National Ballet. Six months later, he was promoted to principal dancer, making Estonian dance history when, at the age of 18, he performed the role of Prince Siegfried in Swan Lake.
Having danced the company’s principal repertoire, Helimets joined Birmingham Royal Ballet in the United Kingdom in 1999. There, he created roles in David Bintley’s The Seasons, The Shakespeare Suite, Sylvia, The Orpheus Suite and Les Petit Riens, as well as in Nahid Siddiqui’s Krishna.
In 2005, Helimets joined San Francisco Ballet as a principal dancer. Since then, he has performed leading roles in Helgi Tomasson’s Swan Lake, Nutcracker, Giselle and The Sleeping Beauty; Tomasson and Yuri Possokhov’s Don Quixote; and John Neumeier’s The Little Mermaid, among others.
Helimets says he loves San Francisco Ballet for its diverse repertoire and constant sense of creative renewal. That was one of the main reasons he chose to join the company, alongside its reputation as one of the leading ballet companies in the United States.
He is equally fond of San Francisco itself. “It’s one of the best cities I have ever lived in,” Helimets says. “It’s friendly and has a vibe no other city has.”
Although Helimets has been at the top of his profession for many years, he says there is little room for complacency.
“As a principal dancer, you have to be at your best all the time,” he says. “The minute you show weakness, somebody will step over you. So there is always a fine balance to achieve – while being strong and active, you have to be careful not to become arrogant or ignorant. Other talents motivate me too, actually.”
His favourite role so far has been Prince Edward in The Little Mermaid, one of San Francisco Ballet’s hottest tickets a few years ago and a production acclaimed by audiences and critics alike. The ballet was also filmed and released on DVD.
As a way of giving something back to the Estonian community and broadening the experience of dancers there, Helimets toured Estonia last year with Tiit Helimets & Co. – effectively his own ballet troupe. The company performed works by two of the greatest American choreographers of modern times, George Balanchine and Val Caniparoli.
The project began when Thomas Edur, then artistic director of the Estonian National Ballet and himself a former star of English National Ballet, approached Helimets with the idea.
Dancing Estonia onto canvas
Helimets’s latest project is also with Tiit Helimets & Co. The company will present a unique multimedia installation at the prestigious M. H. de Young Memorial Museum in San Francisco, one of the most respected fine arts museums in the United States.
The ambitious project pays homage to Helimets’s Estonian roots, drawing particular inspiration from the colours of the Estonian flag and reimagining them through a mythological prism.
The project will see Helimets and his company dance on a large canvas shaped like the map of Estonia. As they move across it, they will spread paint across the surface, gradually creating mythological images rooted in Estonian history.
The performance is another collaborative effort, bringing together some of ballet’s finest dancers as they explore their artistic talents beyond the world of classical ballet. Alongside revealing the lesser-known visual artistry of some of San Francisco Ballet’s most familiar performers, the installation will also feature several world premieres – a rich meeting of fine and performing arts.
Helimets says he has been fortunate in his career. “The weirdest thing is – whatever I have ever dreamed about has come true,” he says.
