To create a convincing and alluring magic act, Koringa reimagined the attributes of yogis. Her chic costume is a form-fitting take on a tiger-skin mat and her signature halo of wild hair recalls the radiating locks of tenth-century yoginis. Koringa was a performer, not an actual yogi. However, her stage persona, like those of other magician-yogis, contributed to a transnational distrust of yoga as a serious practice in the first half of the twentieth century.

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“Mystery girl: why can’t she be killed?”
Look Magazine, September 28, 1937
Des Moines, Iowa, United States
Private Collection