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Figure Skating Choreographers—Brian Wright

Figure Skating Facts, history, and trivia about the people, places and personalities that makes figure skating so cool.

Though his life was short, the impact choreographer Brian Wright had on many in the world of figure skating is long-lasting. Wright was HIV positive for 17 years and spent the last eight years of his life with fully-developed AIDS. He often came to the rink from the hospital and returned there at night. Periodically, he needed to stop what he was doing to inject a drug that kept blood clots in his legs from traveling to his heart. Nevertheless, he continued to do what he loved and created routines for some of the biggest name figure skaters in the sport, including Kristi Yamaguchi, Michelle Kwan, Scott Williams, and Michael Weiss. The United States Figure Skating Association selected Wright as Choreographer of the Year in 1994.

Despite not starting to skate until age 13, Wright proved to be a natural talent and made it up to the national championships at the novice level. He discovered, though, that he was not particularly interested in competing and all that is necessary to succeed at the upper levels. He gave up amateur figure skating to tour with Ice Capades, perform in A Chorus Line on Broadway, and put his flair for movement and music to use as a choreographer. Off the ice, Wright often spoke to groups about safe sex. He also is credited with helping the figure skating community deal more openly with the issue of sexual orientation. Wright died in 2003 at the age of 42.

—Beth Braccio Hering

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Figure Skating Choreographers—Brian Wright