Valery and Galina Panov, the two Soviet ballet dancers now residing in Israel, are in England meeting with people who were active in helping them gain their release from the Soviet Union. “Thank you, thank you for our lives,” Valery Panov declared at a reception for the Panovs given by Israeli Ambassador Gideon Raphael late last week.
Sir Laurence Olivier, the famed actor and a leader in the “Release the Panovs” efforts here, said this was “the most emotional day in a long life.” Jewish community leaders, government ministers, actors and dancers and Britain’s Chief Rabbi Immanuel Jakobovits, attended the reception. “You have not only helped us,” Panov told them, “you have given fresh hope to the entire Russian intelligentsia, as well as opening the way for more of our people. The least we can do in return is try and give you the best, the very best within the confines of our art.”
British Prime Minister Harold Wilson who was to have attended had to remain for a Cabinet meeting. But Rafael praised Wilson for helping the Panovs, noting that “more than any contemporary leader, Mr. Wilson has in word and deed manifested his compassionate concern for the discriminated and persecuted of our people as well as any other oppressed nation.” The Panovs also met with New York Times theater and dance critic, Clive Barnes, who led a committee in their support in New York.
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