On Tuesday, March 12, 1974, a special kind of birthday party was held at Plaza Square, opposite the Plaza Hotel in New York City. The celebrants—Hal Prince, Carol Channing, Julie Harris, Hermione Gingold, Paddy Chayefsky, Geraldine Fitzgerald, to name a few—resembled a delegation from a “Who's Who” of the arts. The guest of honor, conspicuously absent, was Valery Panov. Probably one of the world's greatest dancers, he is known best in this country for his David-and- Goliath struggle with the Soviet authorities, a struggle which has cost him most of what he values in life.