choreographer Brian Wright has died

[Sylvia]

Here's a touching column by Christine Brennan on choreographer Brian Wright's life and death:
http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/brennan/2003-07-31-brennan_x.htm


Wright choreographed hundreds of figure skating programs during a remarkable career that often took him from a hospital bed to the ice, then back again. Every year or so, he would say goodbye to his skating friends, fearing he would never see them again. Then, six months later, they would beam as he would reappear on the ice, all 6-foot-2 of him, arms dangling and skate blades ready to dance, laughing amid his incredible sorrow. He had been HIV-positive for a total of 17 years and had full-blown AIDS for the last eight grueling years.

On Tuesday night, in a Seattle hospital, the inevitable finally occurred. Wright succumbed to complications from his disease. He was 43.

[Sylvia]

You can contribute your memories of and tributes to Wright at Lorrie's Rainbow Ice site at:
http://www.plover.com/rainbowice/wright.html

[Skatewind]

Oh, I'm so sorry to hear this news. :cry:

[Roseline]

Gosh. This just breaks your heart. AIDS is a devastating disease. I can only hope that Brian Wright's death will inspire someone to learn more about the disease and how to protect themselves from contracting it.

The entire skating world will mourn this loss.

[Phuket]

:cry: I am just so sad.

[purplecat]

Very sad! :( He was a very gifted choreographer.

[blades]

i've seen nothing in the seattle papers concerning this...

any word on memorial services??

[lotusland]

Brian was a wonderful person and very gifted at his craft. His love of life and joyful spirit shone through even the darkest days. My heart goes out to him and his circle of friends and family.

[Kruss]

I remember meeting Brian back in 1998 at the American Open.

My friend walked up to him and gave him a bouquet of chocolate roses, and then told him how much she loved his choreography, especially for Scott Davis' West Side Story. She was literally gushing over him for his work!

He was sooooo shocked that he was getting these chocolate roses. I think he was probably used to his skaters getting gifts, so he was surprised that this gift was for him. He was so sweet in thanking her over and over again.

I am glad I have that wonderful memory of Brian. One of my most positive experiences as a fan meeting skating folks.

I am sad at today's news, and wish his family peace.

[A.H.Black]

Lovely memory Kruss. Thank you for sharing it.

[Tigger]

What a loss for the skating community. He was a very gifted choreographer. He will be missed. :(

[LTM]

This is very sad news. He did wonderful work.
Kruss, what a nice story. Thanks for sharing.

[Sing_Alto]

No one should have to suffer that much. But his story of how he courageously dealt with his illness is very inspiring. He's finally free.

[candace]

:cry: This is a sad day in the skating world. He will be missed by a lot of people. Brian's work will be missed also. May he rest in peace.:cry:

[MyTripleFlutz]

Wow.... I can't beleive he's gone.

My favorite memory of Brian Wright was during a test session, he looked around at all the nervous fretting people and said "oh, why don't they just let them all pass so we can just go home. They paid thier money, just let em pass." lol, it put things into perpsective at least. He was so irreverant... classic.

He'll be missed

[Binky]

Wow. :( How sad for his family and friends, and for the skating community in general.

I found the last part of the story especially touching, the voice mail he left Audrey.... "Love you. Miss you. Mean it. Bye!" I mean, it just underscores how important it is to tell the people that are around you just how much they mean to you. Life's too short to be pretentious and phony, or to be reserved and not tell people you love them.

[Kruss]

I have tried for days to read the article at the above link, but it simply won't load for me. I'd very much like to read the article.

Can someone please PM the contents of the article to me? Thanks!

[blades]

8-)

done...

appears that the memorial services will be august 24...so far as i know now...

[Kruss]

Many thanks, blades and Rachel!

[Kruss]

I'd forgotten about another fun memory involving Brian.

At the last American Open I attended (maybe 2 years ago), I went to the reception after the last day of competition. My friends and I all hit the dance floor to the band playing "Downtown". All of a sudden there was Brian Wright, dancing and vogue-ing for all he was worth right next to us.

All I could think was, okay, it's a skating reception, there's one of the best skating choreographers dancing next to you - what do you do? You dance! :)

[Mistyeyed]

Wow! I just got back online after staying away for most of the summer and I see this thread. How very sad!!! I hope that Brian is in a better, happier place where there is no hurt and no pain.

[Rogue]

A fitting memorial would be a skating tribute show with all the skaters performing Brian's choreography. Since that is unlikely to happen, the next best thing would be a tape compilation. I'd volunteer, but my tape collection is sketchy, so I would be missing too many performances.

[tdnuva]

Originally posted by Rogue
A fitting memorial would be a skating tribute show with all the skaters performing Brian's choreography. Since that is unlikely to happen, the next best thing would be a tape compilation. I'd volunteer, but my tape collection is sketchy, so I would be missing too many performances.

My collection is not that big either - but I simply don't know about his choreographies. Could you tell me which routines (for which skaters) he choreographed?

[Sylvia]

Various people's tributes to Brian Wright can be read at Rainbow Ice:
http://www.plover.com/rainbowice/wright.html

KRuss -- you should submit your 1998 American Open memories of Brian! Ditto anybody else who has posted about Brian in this thread.

Posted on the rssif newsgroup by Lorrie Kim:

If you'd like to send flowers to the August 24 celebration of Brian Wright's life, you can call Flowers on 15th at (206) 324-7673 and ask for Linda. She will add your payment to the grand bouquet of "non-generic" flowers. I'm appending a quote from Christine Brennan's tribute to him

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/brennan/2003-07-31-brennan_x.htm

that explains this. He did such exact and inspired work for his skaters -- gotta do it right for him, in return!

Because he was so sick for so long, more than a few kind souls thought Brian was already dead. "I've had sympathy letters addressed to my family," he said in 1997. "Once, a delivery of flowers came for my parents with a sympathy card attached. It was very nice of the people, I thought, although I must say the flowers were pretty generic. I was hoping for a little more."

His dearest friends, including coaches Audrey Weisiger and Scott Williams, are taking care of that this week. "I know everything says 'In lieu of flowers,' " Weisiger said, "but we're going to give him the biggest floral arrangement we've ever seen."

[Phuket]

Thanks Sylvia. My skater said Brian was the best coach/choreographer he ever worked with. I'll make sure to contribute to the flower fund. ;) Brian deserves the best.