Koringa

Renée Bernard was born in Bordeaux, France, in 1913. She was five feet tall and of French Indochina ancestry.{{Cite book |last=Ricketts |first=Charles |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vv15AAAAMAAJ&q=%22Koringa%22+-wikipedia |title=The Boswells: The Story of a South African Circus |date=2003 |publisher=Charles Ricketts |isbn=978-0-620-30717-8 |page=72 |language=en |via=Google Books}}{{Cite news |last=Delmar |first=Anton |date=1948-04-04 |title=Jungle Girl Tames Cros and Pythons |pages=85 |work=Omaha World-Herald |location=Omaha, Nebraska |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/omaha-world-herald-jungle-girl-tames-cro/136398692/ |access-date=2023-12-07 |via=Newspapers.com}} However, her promotional materials claimed that Koringa was born in Rajisthan, India, having been orphaned at the age of three and raised by fakirs who had taught her their skills. One English reporter wrote that she only spoke Spanish and German.{{Cite news |date=1937-12-23 |title=Girl Fakir at Olympia |pages=6 |work=The Daily Telegraph |location=London, England |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-daily-telegraph-girl-fakir-at-olympi/136399476/ |access-date=2023-12-07 |via=Newspapers.com}}

Cyril Bertram Mills of the Bertram Mills Circus discovered and recruited Bernard in 1937 when she was performing an act involving climbing barefoot up a ladder made of swords for a small French circus.{{Cite book |last=Mills |first=Cyril Bertram |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rMIKAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Koringa%22+-wikipedia |title=Bertram Mills Circus: Its Story |date=1967 |publisher=Hutchinson |isbn=978-0-906798-22-5 |page=87 |language=en}} Her act also included dancing on razor blades and hot coals.

Mills and Bernard came up with the name Koringa and fabricated an Indian backstory for her.{{Cite web |title=Koringa |url=https://www.museeducirquealainfrere.com/Les_Tresors/Koringa/Koringa.html |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=Musée du Cirque |language=en}} She was billed as "The Only Female Fakir in the World". This stage persona gave her a cultural identity that was popular with British and French audiences in the time.{{Cite book |last1=Diamond |first1=Debra |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H8NvDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22Koringa%22+-wikipedia&pg=PT260 |title=Yoga: The Art of Transformation |last2=Aitken |first2=Molly Emma |date=2013 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |isbn=978-1-58834-459-5 |page=261 |language=en |via=Google Books}}

Her acts included four female assistants in Eastern-style costumes, five crocodiles, two pythons, two boa constrictors, and having a concrete block broken on her stomach. Koringa act sometimes including pushing pins and needles into her skin and hanging by her throat from the sharp edge of a sword. She would also enter a state of self-hypnosis and, then, was placed on the sharp edge of two metal plates; a reporter noted that the plates were sharp enough to cut paper and sharpen a pencil. In a variation of this act, she lay across the sharp edge of swords; then, a large stone was placed on her and broken with a hammer.

Her signature act was hypnotizing the eight-foot-long crocodile named Churchill and standing on his head while wearing several snakes around her neck.Her act concluded with her being buried alive for five minutes in a sand pit filled with snakes or in a coffin filled and covered with sand. In another variation of her act, she dressed as a female Tarzan, with a leopard print costume.{{Cite web |last=Chireau |first=Yvonne |date=2014-07-28 |title=Circus Freaks, White Voodoo Women, and the Amazing Afro |url=https://academichoodoo.com/2014/07/28/circus-freaks-white-voodoo-women-and-the-amazing-afro/ |access-date=2023-12-06 |website=Professor Chireau's Academic Hoodoo |language=en-US}}

In 1937, she was featured on the cover of Look magazine. By 1938, she was the leading act for Mills Brothers. On 8 July 1938, Koringa and one of her crocodiles visited Fenwicks department store in Newcastle upon Tyne at the invitation of Arthur Fenwick, one of the directors and a circus enthusiast.{{cite news |last1=Henderson |first1=Tony |title=Why visitors to Fenwick's in Newcastle once came face to face with a crocodile |url=https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/history/visitors-fenwicks-newcastle-once-came-16306777 |access-date=4 December 2023 |work=Chronicle Live |date=22 May 2019 |language=en}} By November 1939, it was believed that Koringa earned more than the British prime minister.{{Cite news |date=1939-11-22 |title=Prysylla's Diary |pages=8 |work=Evening Chronicle |location=Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, England |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/evening-chronicle-prysyllas-diary/136400800/ |access-date=2023-12-07 |via=Newspapers.com}}

By 1942, Koringa had left the Mills Circus and was headlining with a vaudeville tour..{{Cite journal |date=April 14, 1942 |title=Crocodiles Mess Up Vaude Act |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IQwEAAAAMBAJ&dq=%22Koringa%22+-wikipedia&pg=PT12 |journal=The Billboard |volume=54 |issue=15 |page=13 |via=Google Books}} In February 1942, she lost control of her largest crocodile and it dived into the orchestra pit at the Palace in Preston. Despite the scattering of the musicians and damage to instruments, Koringa regained control of the reptile and continued her act. The next night, one of her smaller crocodiles bit her chest, below her shoulder. She continued the performance but was unable to complete her show the next night because of the injury which required six stitches. However, a reviewer in The Guardian noted, that her act "belongs to the circus rather than vaudeville."{{Cite news |date=1942-02-24 |title=The Hippodrome |page=6 |work=The Guardian |location=London, England |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-guardian-the-hippodrome/136398081/ |access-date=2023-12-07 |via=Newspapers.com}}

She also appeared as the headline act in other circuses, including Tower Circus in Blackpool, {{ill|Cirque Pinder|fr}} in France, and Boswell Wilkie Circus in South Africa. In July 1955, Koringa was bitten by one of her crocodiles while working as an animal tamer on the film An Alligator Named Daisy at Pinewood Studios, requiring her to be hospitalized.{{Cite news |date=1955-07-15 |title=Alligator Bites Circus Woman |pages=7 |work=Birmingham Evening Mail |location=Birmingham, England |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/birmingham-evening-mail-alligator-bites/136401195/ |access-date=2023-12-07 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite journal |last=Walker |first=Derek |date=Aug 27, 1955 |title=They're Glad This Film Has Ended |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1771138903 |journal=Picturegoer |volume=30 |issue=1060 |pages=9 |id={{ProQuest|1771138903}}}} She stopped touring in 1960 but continued to perform in France. She retired in 1968.

During World War II, Koringa joined the Free French Forces, participating in secret missions.

Koringa was one of the artists featured in a 2018 exhibition Circus! Show of Shows at the Weston Park Museum, Sheffield.{{cite news |last1=Katz |first1=Brigit |title=Black and Female Circus Artists Take Center Ring in New Museum Show |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/hidden-stories-black-and-female-circus-artists-come-light-new-exhibition-180969766/ |access-date=4 December 2023 |work=Smithsonian Magazine |date=27 July 2018 |language=en}}

South African writer Finuala Dowling's 2022 novel The Man Who Loved Crocodile Tamers has Koringa as a central character.{{cite journal |last1=Wright |first1=Laurence |date=11 May 2023 |title=Koringa and the Professor: beating some 'fictive' bounds in Finuala Dowling's The Man Who Loved Crocodile Tamers |journal=ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews |volume=37 |issue=3 |pages=473–481 |doi=10.1080/0895769X.2023.2210168|s2cid=258644367 }}{{cite news |last1=Verduyn |first1=Monique |date=11 May 2022 |title=Book Review: Is it or isn't it a novel? Whatever, it's a great read |language=en-ZA |work=BusinessLive |url=https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/life/books/2022-05-11-book-review-is-it-or-isnt-it-a-novel-whatever-its-a-great-read/ |access-date=4 December 2023}} Koringa is one of the female artists featured in Marisa Carnesky's 2022 production Showwomen.{{cite news |last1=Wyver |first1=Kate |date=9 May 2022 |title='It's hard to find a teacher for sword-swallowing': the thrilling skills of circus showwomen |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2022/may/09/its-hard-to-find-a-teacher-for-sword-swallowing-the-thrilling-skills-of-circus-showwomen |access-date=4 December 2023}}{{cite web |title=Showwomxn |url=https://thelowry.com/whats-on/showwomxn/ |access-date=4 December 2023 |website=The Lowry}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite web |title=Koringa |url=https://www.museeducirquealainfrere.com/Les_Tresors/Koringa/Koringa.html |website=Musée du Cirque |language=fr}} Collection of photographs of Koringa
• {{imdbname|2862827}}
• {{cite web |title= Koringa, 1913–1976, Archives|url=https://archives.shef.ac.uk/agents/people/294 |website=University of Sheffield |language=en}}

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Category:1913 births

Category:1976 deaths

Category:French circus performers

Category:People from Bordeaux