1935 Ida Urbel (1900 - 1983), previously dance director of the small regional theatre Ugala (Viljandi), was engaged as ba llet master, and a permanent dance troupe and a studio group werw established at the theatre. I. Urbel had studied at Gerd Neggo`s studio and perfected her knowledge in classical ballett in Paris and Riga. And so she created an original ballet troupe at the Vanemuine.
Ida Urbel's productions could likewise be labelled choreodramas. Beginning with "Esmeralda" by C. Pugni, she staged the national-ethnographic "Goblin" by E. Tubin. And indeed, the most peculiar feature of I. Urbel's art is the national character of her creation. At the same time, she educated her small, inadequately trained troupe by including in the repertoire some most exacting ballets ("Romeo and Juliet" by s. Prokofjev etc), for which she devised her own choreography and staging, in which the expressivenes of dance and inner motivation contributed to the general effect, leaving the technical insufficiencies almost unnoticed.
Ida Urbel`s forceful and highly individual creative manner determined the nature of the ballet of the Vanemuine in
the course of long years, establishing firm traditions which, though in common to the entire Estonian ballet in its initial years, are strikingly "earth-bound" at the Vanemuine.
The media of classical ballet were rather scantily applied by her, especially at the initial stage, and the plastic interpretation was rather near to the pantomime. It was only towards the close of the 1950s, with the ranks of the Vanemuine dancers being supplemented by the graduates of the Tallinn Choreographical School, that there arose a need for a more differentiated and richer choreography, and I. Urbel could include in her repertoire "Paganini" by Rakhmaninov.