THE END OF LOS ANGELES BALLET

‘I’m glad it (Los Angeles Ballet) went under, that the board officially decided to dissolve,” said John Clifford, founder and artistic director of the company. “Otherwise we’d just keep limping along. . . .”

On the day word surfaced that his 10-year-old company had disbanded and that a prominent downtown bankruptcy law firm had been hired to settle things, Clifford sought to put on a happy face.

“I think it was the only thing the board could do,” he said late Tuesday in a telephone interview from his home.

“I’m not upset, I’m not angry,” he maintained, “though I do have sadness for Los Angeles, now that it no longer has a resident classical ballet company.”

The decision to disband came Jan. 14, but there had been no public announcement. “That was up to them (the board),” said Clifford, who has had his differences with the board.

At the same time, Clifford, 37, the Los-Angeles-born choreographer who had also been a principal dancer with New York City Ballet, confirmed that the Los Angeles Ballet is about $400,000 in debt in secured and unsecured loans.

He also left open the possibility that should some videos he’s working on prove successful, he might start up another resident ballet company, perhaps under another name. “I don’t own the name ‘Los Angeles Ballet,’ ” he explained.

“I’m not going to start the company again unless I’m in control of management,” he added. “I don’t want to start up again and be totally dependent on board support.”

Clifford, who has said he experienced “probably the worst year” of his professional life in 1984, kept his future plans close to the vest. He declined to name the New York company that will sell and distribute his “International Ballet Festival” video. Asked if it was a big company, he said simply, “ Very big.”

But he promised that he would try to pay the company’s 20 or so dancers at least some of what they are owed in wages. He said owed wages for all employees amount to about $60,000, with dancers accounting for about half of that debt. “I’m only going to address myself to the dancers,” Clifford said. He said he himself has been without salary for the last 12 months.

The demise of the Los Angeles Ballet, which has always stood on rather shaky ground, was not unexpected. It had been without an executive director for about a year.

Last summer, it withdrew from the Olympic Arts Festival because it could not afford to put on its planned productions.

At the end of September, having missed two consecutive months’ rent, the company was evicted from its Hollywood rehearsal studio. At the same time, it canceled its production of the “The Nutcracker,” the popular Christmas-season attraction, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

As for why the Los Angeles Ballet failed, Clifford has some ready answers.

He cited “the 10 years of hostile criticism”--mentioning in particular Los Angeles Times music/dance critic Martin Bernheimer. “At the same time (there was) the Joffrey, the announced residency in Los Angeles,” said Clifford of the New York-based Joffrey Ballet. “This city still may not be ready for a resident company. L.A. is import-crazed.”

And there were those differences in his own shop. “The board was not hiring management,” he said.

“Really,” he added, “it’s everybody’s fault. I have no blames. This frees my hand. I didn’t want to resign from the ballet. I didn’t want to be the one to put it under.”

He said what kept him going were “royalties from my own ballet choreographies.”

(On Oct. 26, Clifford and 27 L. A. Ballet dancers performed with San Jose Ballet. Clifford also appeared in a Dec. 11 episode of “Glitter.”)

Now he is writing a book about his life. He declined to name his agent. He says he is considering several positions with other ballet companies in “other cities (that are) circling around. I’m not going to say that either. . . .”

What he will give is an epitaph of sorts for his own Los Angeles Ballet. “We were the first professional (resident) ballet company ever to last,” he said. “Ever.”