Equally comfortable on stage or television, Spina choreographed and performed countless routines with Copperfield, including his provocative Water Levitation where amid a torch-lit, Amazon-like rain forest, she levitated on streams of water while doing a quivering horizontal dance to pounding drumbeats. She rendered style and grace to Copperfield's Flying Illusion by giving it a fluidity that convinced millions that humans were destined to fly.
Yet it is in her work as a solo performer that audiences most gain insight into the depth and range of this one-woman tour de force. With the panache of a consummate professional, she infuses her magic with emotions ranging from romantic mystery to whimsical fantasy. The result leads to unadulterated amazement. Consider the opening of her act, where a rising fog shows an empty window. Mysteriously, the blinds lower to reveal the silhouette of a woman inside. As the blinds rise, Spina appears and beckons to a man below. A seductive dance ensues with her finally retreating back to the sanctuary inside her window. As the blinds once again fall, she is seen only in silhouette. When they quickly raise, she has vanished. Her admirer rushes to the empty window and looks under a nearby satin sheet. Upon pulling the sheet away, Spina magically appears in place of her lover. Audiences from Sicily to Selma have jumped to their feet cheering for
Spina's theatrical wizardry as she synchronizes the art of storytelling with the power of
music and physical expression to catapult her magic into the stratosphere of unforgettable
entertainment.
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Richard De La Font Agency,
Inc.
As artistic
consultant and principal performer to David Copperfield for 11 years, Joanie Spina
redressed the ancient art of magic with a flair of the caliber of Broadway and Hollywood
productions. Critics worldwide note that the results of her collaboration with the world's
most respected conjurer raised the stature of magic to new heights in the eyes of the
public and ensured the viability of the art form into the 21st century.
A two-month engagement at Caesar's Magical Empire was capped off when CBS
Sports taped Spina's vanishing of women's world-champion figure skater, Michelle
Kwan, while Kurt Browning kiddingly added encouragement.
