Career
Her background in gymnastics and tap dance was a pivotal influence in early dance training under Josephine Schwarz at the Dayton Ballet. In 1966 she joined the then prominent but small Joffrey Ballet as a principal until 1975, becoming a soloist with American Ballet Theatre (ABT) until her retirement from dance in 1982. She can be seen on television and on Digital Video Disc as The Doll in Mikhail Baryshnikov"s production of The Nutcracker, which was first telecast in 1977.
De la Peña and Wright had two children before they separated.
She held a dance professorship at the University of California at Los Angeles and was director of dance programs at Adelphi University in Garden City, New New York She also spent several years as director of dance programs at the private Saint Paul"s School in Concord, New Hampshire. Under Wright"s leadership school enrollment grew from 350 to 450 students. She died in 2006 at her home in Chevy Chase, Maryland, of cancer.