Valery Panov

Valery and Galina Panov, 1977

Valery Panov (born 12 March 1938) is a Soviet-born Israeli dancer and choreographer.

Early career

Valery Panov was born in Vitebsk, Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (present-day Vitebsk, Belarus) in 1938. He studied at the Vaganova School in Leningrad, which is the present-day Academy of Russian Ballet, St. Petersburg. Panov attended the Moscow and Leningrad Ballet Schools, graduating from the latter in 1957.

He danced with the Maly Ballet in Leningrad (1957–64), where he created roles in Lopukhov's Ballad of Love (1959), in Davitashvili's Daphnis and Chloe (1960) and Bolero (1960), and in Boyarsky's Petrushka (1961), Orpheus (title role, 1962), and The Lady and the Hooligan (1962). In 1964 he joined the Kirov, where he remained until 1972. There he created roles in Jacobson's Land of Miracles (1967), Vinogradov's Gorianka (1968), Sergeyev's Hamlet (title role, 1970), and Kasatkina's and Vasiliov's Creation of the World (1971). ^{[citation needed]}

Politics

Panov came to international attention when, in 1972, he and his second wife, Kirov ballerina Galina (née Ragozina), applied for exit visas to Israel. The Panovs were expelled from the Kirov, imprisoned briefly and forbidden from taking class for two years. Artists in the West (including Laurence Olivier) appealed to the authorities on their behalf. Finally, in 1974, the Panovs were allowed to leave Russia. They settled in Israel, making frequent guest appearances abroad as a couple. In Israel, the Panovs danced with the Bathsheva and Bat-Dor dance companies from 1974-77.^[1]

Choreographer

Panov was guest choreographer and principal dancer with the Berlin Opera Ballet between 1977 and 1983. There he choreographed several ballets, including Cinderella, Sacre du printemps, The Idiot, and War and Peace. He also staged Heart of the Mountain for the San Francisco Ballet (1976), Scheherazade and Petrushka for Vienna State Opera Ballet (1981), The Three Sisters for the Royal Swedish Ballet (1983), and Hamlet to music by Shostakovich for the Norwegian National Ballet (1984).

He was artistic director of the Royal Ballet of Flanders from 1984-86, for whom he staged Romeo and Juliet and Moves. In 1988 he created Cléopâtre for the Istanbul Devlet Ballet. In 1993 he founded in the Aschdod Art Centre, a ballet troupe. ^{[citation needed]}

On Broadway in 1983-84, Galina Panova succceeded Natalia Makarova, also a Russian ballerina who had defected, in the Broadway revival of On Your Toes, for which Makarova had won a Tony Award.^[2]

Autobiography

• To Dance (New York, 1978)

Honors

• Valery Panov was awarded the Lenin Prize (1969). ^{[citation needed]}
• Valery Panov is an honorary citizen of New York City and San Francisco. ^{[citation needed]}

See also

• List of Russian ballet dancers

References

Film

• : "Documentary of Panov performing with the Louisville Ballet"