THE BALLOON MAN

Circus Flora selects successor to founder Ivor David Balding

 

Jack Marsh to serve as associate artistic director of Circus Flora
FROM: post-dispatch.com
By Diane Toroian Keaggy
December 17, 2012
Jack Marsh, son of veteran Circus Flora performer Cecil MacKinnon, has been named successor to Ivor David Balding, co-founder and artistic director of the one-ring circus.
As associate artistic director, Marsh will serve as Balding's understudy until 2016. Afterwards, Balding hopes to continue as a consultant.
Marsh, 28, has worked as both an attorney and a wine distributor, but his association with the circus stretches back to his youth. He appeared in his first show at age 2 and has helped out in many ways from scrubbing bleachers to juggling with the St. Louis Arches. His mother, MacKinnon, is known best to fans as Yo-Yo the Narrator.
“Jack is like family to me, much like a nephew,” said Balding. "And an organization as steeped in tradition as ours operates like a family. So it was important not only to select a solid artistic director and manager, but one of our own. Someone with circus literally running through his or her veins. We are so fortunate to have all those qualities in Jack."
Circus Flora, which stages a one-ring circus in Grand Center, was founded in 1987.