Photograph by Kevin A. Roberts
One-ring European-style Circus Flora turns 25 this year, and it’s celebrating in a big way: pairing with the St. Louis Symphony for three awe-inspiring, eye-opening performances at Powell Hall (January 8 and 9, slso.org).
The awe comes standard with Circus Flora, especially when “the Wallendas walk on their high wire over the symphony audience in the finale,” explains Circus Flora co-founder Ivor David Balding.
The eye-opening comes courtesy of the conceit that holds this unusual offering together. The performance is called “The Floating Palace”—named after a gigantic, two-story ship with a full circus and amphitheater seating inside, which cruised the Mississippi and Ohio rivers on the eve of the Civil War.
“It was an extraordinary thing,” explains Balding. “It was accompanied by a towboat carrying an animal menagerie. There were stowaways, spies, and pirates involved, too, and we’re working all that out with the music for the show, with the clowns and dog act and jugglers
and acrobats.”
