By the time Mykhailo (Misha) Makarov appears on stage in the risque adult circus Blanc de Blanc Encore, the well-lubricated audience has already seen some remarkable things.
There’s the hoop dancer creating dazzling patterns with eight hula hoops spinning on her body simultaneously. The clownish emcee who can catch grapes in his mouth thrown from the back of the theatre. The half-dozen stark-naked striptease dancers keeping rude bits hidden with the strategic deployment of bath towels.
Misha Makarov was inspired to start “bonebreaking” as a 16-year-old, watching a performer on America’s Got Talent unfold himself from a suitcase. Credit: B'ritt Mobbs
Then Makarov comes on, shirtless, to show what he can do with his arms, neck and head. The screams of delight quickly give way to screams of horror.
“It’s hard to explain what his talents are to people,” the show’s senior producer, Jess Copas, says. “You’ve just got to see it, you know?”
What Makarov does has an evocative name: “bonebreaking”. This rare physiological ability has taken him from Ukraine to China, Las Vegas, Paris, across the Pacific, and ultimately to Brisbane.
He first realised his body was unusual as a 16-year-old, at home in Poltava, central Ukraine, while watching an episode of America’s Got Talent in which a performer unfolds his body from inside a small suitcase.
“I decided to try it,” Makarov says. “I looked at myself in the reflection of the window, and just twisted my arm. I was shocked and impressed, and I ran to my friends and I was like, ‘guys, look at this!’.
Makarov had, in fact, dislocated his shoulder. “I [didn’t] feel any pain, and also my muscles, they are very soft. And that’s why I can bend it and control it.”
While he would begin a career as a chef, Makarov had a passion for hip-hop dance, and began incorporating his extreme flexibility into his routines.
An opportunity to work in China as a back-up dancer saw him relocate, and in 2018 he represented China in Paris at the Juste Debout Experimental Dance competition. The YouTube video of his world championship-winning routine makes for interesting viewing. Near the end, a nonplussed-sounding commentator loses his cool when the dancer rotates his head 180 degrees, Exorcist-style.
Strut and Fret creative director Scott Maidment caught the act and invited Makarov to be in the original Blanc de Blanc. A year later the performer joined the cast in the Las Vegas production. Makarov has regularly appeared with the company ever since, touring Australia and the world.
After COVID saw him trapped in an apartment in Melbourne for five months, he returned to Ukraine to become the choreographer dance company Inshi Cirque.
Makarov was in Kyiv on February 24, 2022.
“My ex-fiance, she woke me up with a lot of panic and fear in her eyes and I didn’t understand what was going on.
“The first thing that I heard was the sound of the luggage, the wheels of the luggage on the street. People are running, everyone is packing and trying to get out of the city.”
Russia’s invasion had begun.
Makarov has performed all around the world but was in Kyiv on the day Russia invaded Ukraine.Credit: B'ritt Mobbs
“At 4am they attacked all the towers and communication buildings. There were missiles, you can hear explosions, and you can see the mushrooms in the sky.”
After a frantic all-night journey to the Polish border, Makarov said goodbye to his Peruvian fiancee, who would flee to New York while he stayed in Ukraine to help other friends. “She called me on my birthday and said, ‘Misha, I’m starting a new life. Good luck.’ It was a big trauma for me.”
He left the country a month later with government permission to be a cultural ambassador, representing the “unbreakable” spirit of Ukraine. His company’s six-man production, Reves (Dreams), played in Paris during the Olympics.
Makarov lost friends in the fighting, and helped bury the dead in makeshift graves. His father died in May, and his mother and sister remain in Ukraine.
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“I have PTSD and I’m trying to fight it. I see doctors, I have some prescribed medications, I prefer therapies. It’s hard to heal it because it’s still happening … It’s heavy to know that my mum is in the bomb shelter, and I’m here.”
Copas says Makarov is “probably one of the happiest people, considering what he’s gone through. What you see on stage, he genuinely carries it across into everyday life. We’re so lucky to have him”.
Blanc de Blanc Encore is playing five nights a week at Strut and Fret’s new hometown theatre, the West End Electric.
Remodelled to evoke a European cabaret club, it’s the ideal venue for the style of “champagne cabaret” that has made the company an international success.
Makarov’s acts of contortion are all part of the fun, but also seem to express the mental anguish of a soul caught up in the geopolitics of a rapidly changing world.
“Blanc de Blanc is a fantastic, beautiful show for me, because every performer is able to be himself,” he says.
Makarov left Ukraine a month after the first attack, with government permission to be a cultural ambassador, representing the country’s “unbreakable” spirit.Credit: B'ritt Mobbs
He sees himself as part of Ukraine’s grand circus tradition. “We have many, many legendary circus performers, we have a big circus school. In Cirque du Soleil you see so many Ukrainians ...
“I’m Ukrainian and I have honour, and I see how Australian people are helping me. So I’m trying to give the best product to Australia every day performing here.
“I’m performing like I am performing in front of a queen.”
Tickets to Blanc de Blance Encore at the West End Electric are selling through to February 16.