TROUBLES AT THE JOFFREY : NEWS ANALYSIS : Reorganizing Was Needed at Company

It was an upbeat opening night for the Joffrey Ballet on Wednesday, with an expectant crowd, smiling dancers and a vaudeville-style final number. Aside from a dropped beach ball that had to be carried out in one segment, no dancers seemed distracted, morose or other than joyous to be performing on the Music Center stage.

They appeared undaunted by the events of recent days, including the resignation of the company’s artistic director, Gerald Arpino, and a reorganization of the company’s board in order to address the company’s deficit, which had reached almost $2 million by late March.

“The dancers really danced their hearts out tonight,” said the company’s executive director Penelope Curry, after the Wednesday show. “The spirit tonight is a tribute to the dancers. They’re professionals and care deeply about Mr. Arpino. They wouldn’t think of canceling. I think they were dancing with a lot of hope in their hearts.”

“Tonight’s for fun,” said Frank Lynch, vice chairman of the Joffrey board. “We’ll talk business (Thursday).”

The business being discussed Thursday at an mid-day emergency meeting of several Joffrey board members no doubt had to do with the short- and long-term future of the company.

In the short-term: What to do about a letter received Wednesday from Arpino’s attorney, Harold Messing, advising the company to cease performing--commencing today--”works which are the property of Gerald Arpino and/or the estate of Robert Joffrey.”

Tonight’s program features works by Diaghilev and Nijinsky, but Saturday’s lineup includes three Arpino works.

Messing’s letter said, in part, “This office is prepared to take whatever action we deem appropriate to protect the interests of our clients.”

In the long-term, the board must solve some serious financial problems, and determine how to maintain the Joffrey Ballet--without either of the company’s co-founders. Arpino’s resignation was prompted in part by a reorganization of the company’s management structure, which was approved at board meetings Monday in Los Angeles and Tuesday in New York.

The reorganization, according to several board members, was necessary in order to streamline the company’s management, which had been led by a 55-member board with membership on both coasts, and which had watched the company struggle with perennial deficit woes.

A plan was designed by board officers, working with lawyers, to form an operating committee of up to 15 members that would retain all decision-making powers without consulting the rest of the board. Formation of the committee was approved by a vote of 31-9. (The vote prompted some resignations from the board.)

The committee is expected to be chaired by current Joffrey co-chairman David Murdock.

Also at the meetings was Arco Executive Vice President Ronald Arnault, chairman of the Music Center’s Finance Committee and chairman-elect of the Music Center. The Joffrey has performed an annual season at the Music Center since 1983 and the center provides about $1 million in support annually to the company.

Earlier this year, the Joffrey requested--and received--an additional $500,000 from the Music Center to help the company finance the current Los Angeles engagement, which continues through May 27.

“The problem that faced us was providing the money to help them to perform here and looking at a possible long range plan for the financial survival of one of the resident groups,” Arnault said Thursday. “Mr. Murdock was willing to explore helping solve these problems in a substantial way but he is not committed to anything, to my knowledge.

Originally, nine members from both coasts were named to serve on the new committee, but one appointee, Stephanie French, later declined.

French said there was not an an East coast-West coast split involved. “There are people on both sides of the fence on both coasts.”

Murdock, who has been out of the country, will play a prominent role if the company continues to exist. It is understood that Murdock both gave and loaned the Music Center a substantial part of the more than $500,000 already raised by the Music Center, which is expected to be funneled to the Joffrey. It is also understood that Murdock may be willing to provide additional gifts and loans to help meet operating costs as well as existing deficits.

In his resignation letter to the board, Arpino--who was in Los Angeles Wednesday but unavailable for comment--made several references to his history with the company founded in 1956, including this passage:

“I refuse to participate in an organization which, I believe, has lost its moral and ethical foundation and which I believe will destroy the artistic vision, reputation and goals of Robert Joffrey, myself and all the good people who have worked with us for more than 35 years.”

Arpino has recently been resisting efforts to have a third person added to the company’s top level staff, which had been run by Arpino and Curry. At one point, it had been suggested that Sally Brayley Bliss, a longtime Joffrey associate, be given the post.

Bliss, the former director of the Joffrey II company until she resigned Jan. 23, said: “A group on the board wanted to bring me in because he wasn’t understanding things--I don’t want to say what. The point is I know the staff and dancers well and could have been useful. He has always been a choreographer, not a director, and needed the help.”

The Toronto-born Bliss, who began her career as a dancer with the National Ballet of Canada in the ‘50s, then joined the Metropolitan Opera Ballet where she worked with choreographer Antony Tudor (becoming a close friend and now the executor of his estate as well as trustee of his ballets). It was there that she met and married Anthony A. Bliss, who became a member of the opera’s administrative troika.

One source close to the situation said that the former dancer “has always wanted to run the company, even when Joffrey was still alive.”

Bliss went on to say that “In October, Tony (Bliss) called together a meeting of all the past presidents--I knew nothing about it. They decided I should be a paid president (in which case) David Holbrook would have stepped down. But I am not a presidential type personality and felt more comfortable with the idea of general director. Some board members resented the plan and some didn’t. They took sides and ever since then it’s been a disaster.”

Tony Bliss then got on the phone to offer this explanation of Arpino’s resignation: “He was fenced in by board members and didn’t like it. There were too many of them. With more than 50, it’s a cumbersome board. I think the five members who supported Jerry and resigned themselves advised him to do it.”

Contributing to this article were Lewis Segal, John Henken, Daniel Cariaga, Donna Perlmutter and Joe Velazquez.

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