Murdock Will Quit Joffrey, Co-Chair Says

David Murdock, the prominent businessman and multimillionaire who was instrumental in the Joffrey Ballet’s adopting Los Angeles as a second home in 1983, has submitted a letter of resignation from the board of the troubled company, according to a fellow board member.

Murdock was unavailable for comment, but Anthony Bliss, who served as co-chairman with Murdock, said he was told by a Joffrey staff member that Murdock’s resignation letter was at the ballet’s office at the Music Center.

The company has been in turmoil since last week, when Joffrey co-founder and artistic director Gerald Arpino submitted his resignation on the eve of the company’s first performance of the spring season at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion.

Arpino resigned because of a board reorganization, which he claims stripped his authority. His attorney subsequently advised the company to refrain from performing Arpino’s works, claiming that the choreographer owns the rights to his ballets.

The company is also suffering from severe financial problems, with a deficit approaching $2 million.

Murdock’s resignation would be significant, because he has been a major donor to the company and reportedly offered to lead the effort to erase the Joffrey’s deficit.

“Frankly, (the company) is in jeopardy,” Bliss said from his New York home Thursday night. “One of the main problems has been getting people together to talk. And this has all made it difficult to raise funds.

“We all hope it will be settled, that everybody would agree on the problems and agree to conquer them.”

Bliss said such an agreement, in his opinion, would include Arpino’s return to the company.

The embattled Joffrey received yet another blow Thursday when Cal Performances, the presenting organization at UC Berkeley, canceled the company’s scheduled July 17-29 engagement.

Paulette Wamego, a spokeswoman for Cal Performances, said negotiations for a final contract were terminated as a result of the resignation of Arpino.

Wamego said the Berkeley contract rested on Arpino’s personal appearance at Berkeley and the inclusion of his works on four of the six scheduled programs. The company was scheduled for 14 performances in the 2,000-seat Zellerbach Hall.

Nancy Davis, the Joffrey’s West Coast manager, tried to minimize the Berkeley situation Thursday. “Nothing is final. We’re trying to work something out right now and we’ll be talking to Berkeley tomorrow,” she said. “I don’t have a sense of why this happened. I think we’ll be able to get something settled.”

The Joffrey board is scheduled to meet this morning in a continuing effort to resolve the dispute with Arpino.

Times staff writers Charisse Jones, Steven R. Churm and Lewis Segal contributed to this story.