Fern, Dale

Dale Edward Fern was born in Ottumwa, Iowa. He became interested in dance after he saw a published photograph of Olga Spessivtzeva in “Giselle”. In fact, the impression made on him by her image was so great that he decided to find out who the dancer was.

After his graduation from high school he went to Chicago, then, in 1945 he moved to NY where he started taking ballet classes, attended performances, and inquired everywhere about Olga Spessivtzeva. Nobody seemed to know where she was. Only in 1949 by mere chance he met Romola Nijinsky who told him that Olga Spessivtzeva was mentally ill (with the same diagnosis as Vaslav Nijinsky) and had been a resident in a mental hospital for almost ten years.

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