Rebecca Wright, who died Sunday at 58, was a leading ballerina at New York dance companies for nearly two decades, beginning in the mid-1960s; she was also a choreographer and dance teacher.

Starting in 1966, she was a principle dancer at the Joffrey Ballet, where she danced roles from the very modern, like Jerome Robbin’s music-free ballet “Moves,” to the fanciful, like Titania in Frederick Ashton’s “The Dream.” The Los Angeles Times, remarking on her role in Gerald Arpino’s “Confetti” in 1970 called her “a fleet little charmer.”

In 1975, Wright moved to the American Ballet Theater, where she was a soloist until 1982.

In 1983, she was nominated for a Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her performance as Philomena, a balletic unicorn, in “Merlin,” a Doug Henning extravaganza of magic, song, and dance.

Wright later became a professor of dance at California State University at Long Beach, and at the University of California, Los Angeles. She served as director of summer training for the American Ballet Theater and director of the Adelphi University dance program. At the time of her death, she was director of the Washington School of Ballet, where she had taken over from its legendary founder, Mary Day, in 2004.

Wright was born in Springfield, Ohio, and studied at the nearby Dayton Ballet School before joining the Dayton Ballet, while still in her teens.

Following her semi-retirement in 1982 and her Broadway debut, she occasionally appeared in guest roles as a dancer, including with the Chicago Ballet, the Los Angeles Chamber Ballet, and a Disney Spectacular at the Hollywood Bowl, in 1990.

Rebecca Diane Wright
Born December 5, 1947, in Springfield, Ohio; died January 29 of cancer at her home in Chevy Chase, Md.; survived by her husband, George De La Pena, and by her sons, Matthew and Alexander.