Yvonne Mounsey, a dancer of glamour, wit and striking presence who created many roles for George Balanchine and Jerome Robbins with New York City Ballet before founding a prominent West Coast ballet school, died on Saturday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 93.
The cause was cancer, her daughter, Allegra Clegg, said.

Tall and authoritative, Ms. Mounsey put such a stamp on roles — even ones she did not create, as in Balanchine’s “Prodigal Son” and “Serenade” — that people still recall her delivery of certain moments after more than 50 years.

Ms. Mounsey joined City Ballet in 1949, dancing in many of its early performances of Balanchine’s “Serenade” (as the Dark Angel) and “The Four Temperaments.” Although she was not the first Siren when Balanchine revived his 1929 ballet “Prodigal Son” in 1950, Ms. Mounsey became the role’s first classic interpreter on American soil. She had studied the role with its originator, Felia Doubrovska, and decades later coached it on film for the George Balanchine Foundation.

With her spectacular height — she was over 6 feet tall on point — long legs and cool eroticism, she came to epitomize the character for a generation.

For Balanchine, she also created supporting solo roles in “La Valse” and “Swan Lake” (both in 1951) and the Spanish dance in “The Nutcracker” (1954). For Robbins, she created the roles of the Queen in “The Cage” (1951), the Harp in “Fanfare” (1953) and the Wife .