For years Valery Panov was the premier dancer in Russia. His wife Galina was a ballerina of exhilarating potential. Then, in March of 1972, Panov, who is a Jew, and Galina, who is not, applied for permission to emigrate to Israel. Refusal was accompanied by stunning repercussions: Panov's dismissal from Leningrad's Kirov Ballet, his wife's ignominious demotion, and subsequent denial of the couple's right to dance at all.
Life became a minute-by-minute ordeal of persecution, torture and imprisonment that stirred world indignation. In the many months that followed, the Panovs emerged as a symbol of oppressed Soviet Jewry. Last summer, finally allowed...
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