{{Short description|French circus artist (1913–1976)}} {{for|the river in India|Koringa River}} {{Use British English|date=December 2023}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}'''Renée Bernard''', known as '''Koringa''' (1913–1976) was a French circus performer and snake charmer.<ref name="toulmin">{{cite journal |last1=Toulmin |first1=Vanessa|author-link1=Vanessa Toulmin |title=Koringa: From Biknar to Blackpool |journal=Cabinet |date=Summer 2007 |issue=26 |url=https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/26/toulmin.php |access-date=4 December 2023 |language=en}}</ref><ref name="sheffield">{{cite web |title=Koringa, 1913–1976 |url=https://archives.shef.ac.uk/agents/people/294 |website=Discover Our Archives |publisher=University of Sheffield |access-date=4 December 2023}}</ref><ref name="cordner">{{Cite news |last=Cordner |first=Chris |date=June 20, 2022 |title=The crocodile handler who performed on the Hartlepool stage – with snakes around her neck |work=Harlepool Mall |url=https://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/retro/the-crocodile-handler-who-performed-on-the-hartlepool-stage-with-snakes-around-her-neck-3736794 |access-date=December 6, 2023}}</ref> She was billed as the "Only Female Fakir in the World" and "the only female yogi".<ref name="diamond">{{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=259 |language=en |via=Google Books}}</ref>
== Early life == Renée Bernard was born in Bordeaux, France, in 1913.<ref name="toulmin" /><ref name="sheffield" /> She was five feet tall and of French Indochina ancestry.<ref name="ricketts">{{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}}</ref><ref name="delmar">{{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}}</ref> 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.<ref name="sheffield" /><ref name="cordner" /><ref name="diamond" /> One English reporter wrote that she only spoke Spanish and German.<ref name="telegraph">{{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}}</ref>
== Career == 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.<ref name="toulmin" /><ref>{{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}}</ref> Her act also included dancing on razor blades and hot coals.<ref name="cordner" />
Mills and Bernard came up with the name Koringa and fabricated an Indian backstory for her.<ref name="sheffield" /><ref>{{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}}</ref> She was billed as "The Only Female Fakir in the World".<ref name="toulmin" /><ref name="cordner" /> This stage persona gave her a cultural identity that was popular with British and French audiences in the time.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
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.<ref name="toulmin" /><ref name="sheffield" /><ref name="delmar" /> Koringa act sometimes including pushing pins and needles into her skin and hanging by her throat from the sharp edge of a sword.<ref name="delmar" /> 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.<ref name="delmar" /> 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.<ref name="telegraph" />
Her signature act was hypnotizing the eight-foot-long crocodile named Churchill and standing on his head while wearing several snakes around her neck.<ref name="katz" /><ref name="cordner" /><ref name="delmar" />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.<ref name="cordner" /><ref name="ricketts" /><ref name="telegraph" /> In another variation of her act, she dressed as a female Tarzan, with a leopard print costume.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
In 1937, she was featured on the cover of ''Look'' magazine.<ref name="diamond" /> By 1938, she was the leading act for Mills Brothers.<ref name="toulmin" /> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> By November 1939, it was believed that Koringa earned more than the British prime minister.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
By 1942, Koringa had left the Mills Circus and was headlining with a vaudeville tour..<ref name="billboard">{{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}}</ref> In February 1942, she lost control of her largest crocodile and it dived into the orchestra pit at the Palace in Preston.<ref name="billboard" /> Despite the scattering of the musicians and damage to instruments, Koringa regained control of the reptile and continued her act.<ref name="billboard" /> The next night, one of her smaller crocodiles bit her chest, below her shoulder.<ref name="billboard" /> She continued the performance but was unable to complete her show the next night because of the injury which required six stitches.<ref name="billboard" /> However, a reviewer in ''The Guardian'' noted, that her act "belongs to the circus rather than vaudeville."<ref>{{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}}</ref>
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.<ref name="toulmin" /><ref name="sheffield" /> 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref><ref>{{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}}}}</ref> She stopped touring in 1960 but continued to perform in France.<ref name="toulmin" /> She retired in 1968.<ref name="toulmin" />
== Free French Forces == During World War II, Koringa joined the Free French Forces, participating in secret missions.<ref name="toulmin" />
==Fictional and theatrical representations and exhibitions==
Koringa was one of the artists featured in a 2018 exhibition ''Circus! Show of Shows'' at the Weston Park Museum, Sheffield.<ref name="katz">{{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}}</ref>
South African writer Finuala Dowling's 2022 novel ''The Man Who Loved Crocodile Tamers'' has Koringa as a central character.<ref>{{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 }}</ref><ref name="verduyn">{{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}}</ref> Koringa is one of the female artists featured in Marisa Carnesky's 2022 production ''Showwomen''.<ref name="wyver">{{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}}</ref><ref name="lowry">{{cite web |title=Showwomxn |url=https://thelowry.com/whats-on/showwomxn/ |access-date=4 December 2023 |website=The Lowry}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * {{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}}
{{authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Koringa}} Category:1913 births Category:1976 deaths Category:French circus performers Category:People from Bordeaux