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.

When Dale Fern went to see her in the hospital he found her unable to communicate, and the hospital authorities completely unaware of who their patient was.

From that moment on to Olga Spessivtzeva's death in 1991 Dale Fern remained Olga's devoted friend. For 10 years he visited her weekly in Hudson River State Hospital. His visits and care contributed a great deal to Olga's recovery at the beginning of the 1960s, and resulted in her transfer to the Tolstoy Foundation Farm in Nyack.

Olga Spessivtzeva [Ol'ga Aleksandrovna Spesivtseva] was born on July 18, 1895 in the city of Rostov-on-Don, Russia. She graduated from The Theatre School in Saint-Petersburg in 1913 and was accepted into the Maryinsky ballet company as a corps de ballet dancer. In 1916 she was promoted to the rank of soloist, and in 1918 she became a ballerina.

Even before she graduated from school Spessivtzeva was considered to be the most promising young dancer of her generation. Very soon she proved that she really was. In 1916 Olga was invited by Serge Diaghilev to join his company on it's first American tour. She had great personal success and also as a partner of Vaslav Nijinsky. In 1921 she performed the leading role in the famous Diaghilev production of `Sleeping princess” in London. In 1923 Spessivtzeva left Russia for good to dance with the Paris Opera Ballet and later, from 1927 with Diaghilev's company. After Diaghilev's death she returned to the Paris Opera, and in 1931, after Anna Pavlova's death she was engaged by Victor Dandre to fulfill Pavlova's engagements. In July of 1937, in Buenos Aires she gave her last performance.

Spessivtzeva's career was abruptly interrupted by the mental decease of which she suffered sporadically for many years. As legend has it, she lost her memory on-stage performing the famous mad scene in Giselle. In 1940 she suffered a major nervous breakdown and was taken to the psychiatric hospital. She remained in the hospital for 22 years, until she recovered and was released. Spessivtzeva moved to the Tolstoy's Foundation Farm in Nayack where she lived until her death on September 16 of 1991.

From the guide to the Olga Spessivtzeva collection and letters, 1949-1991, (The New York Public Library. Jerome Robbins Dance Division.)