about
Kiebpoli Calnek is an actress and corde lisse aerialist. She is a graduate of CCNY, a member of the Lincoln Center Directors Lab, and of the Actors’ Equity Association. Her works have received generous funding and support from Elizabeth Streb, Astrea Foundation, Asian Arts Initiative, and The New York Foundation for the Arts. Kiebpoli is also Founder and Artistic Director of BLACK*ACROBAT, an organization that empowers people of color through the vertical world of aerial acrobatics and with devised theatrical performances. Our shows tackle provocative dark subjects and re-imagine stories of the black diaspora. She has trained at The Circus Space in London and with Kevin O'Connor in NYC. Her aerial theatre performances have been at Dixon Place, LaMama, etc., The Kitchen, The SKybox, SLAM at STREB, The Tank, PS 122, The Brooklyn Lyceum, The Zipper Theatre, and 3-Legged Dog amongst others.
"blacK*acrobat, a beautiful woman clad in a silhouette of a slip enters the space and is immediately struck by a glimpse of her lover embodied in a rope. She mounts the rope and as she dances a narrative of suggestive romance the audience is wound into her story. At first she is lost in the world of the aerial dream but like all dreams it begins to slip away and she is left back on earth with the weight of the memory of love."
