There are few theatre companies that subvert expectations and present bodies in motion quite like Branch Nebula. Air Time is experimental and absurd and punk rock. This isn’t a normal stunt show. It is medium-bending, genre-breaking, pure theatre.
—Bradley Ward, Theatre Travels
In Air Time skate ramps tower over the audience, propelling BMXers, skaters, dancers and parkourists with extreme speed and height.
The chaotic and anarchic street energy of Air Time is exhilarating with the risk and danger of bodies on foot and bodies on wheels colliding in a confined space. Air Time is a thrilling nexus of wheels in motion with the elegant flow of dance and parkour.
Air Time is a large-scale in-theatre performance work created with elite street-style artists working across BMX, skate and parkour. Presented within a theatrical context, the work brings street-based physical practices into dialogue with contemporary performance, scenography and lighting, foregrounding precision, risk and collective focus.
Designed for Main Stage and festival venues, Air Time reconfigures the stage as a site of velocity and suspension, where performers negotiate height, momentum and gravity in full view of the audience. The work places street culture inside the frame of theatre, offering a heightened, immersive encounter that amplifies both spectacle and intimacy.
Air Time pushed the envelope and left the audience breathless with their display of skills across a menu of arts disciplines founded in the streets.
—John Moyle, CityHub
Air Time builds on Branch Nebula’s extensive street-style work established over a decade of showcasing outstanding talent. Way back in 2004 Branch Nebula brought the virtuosity of street culture into the theatre for the first time, with Paradise City touring all over Australia and to four cities in Brazil. Next they swopped it around for the ultimate challenge to choreograph in an actual skatepark with dancers and parkourists, running and dancing amongst the skaters and BMXers in Concrete and Bone Sessions for the 2013 Sydney Festival. However, taking over a skatepark with a choreographed show wasn’t fair on local users, which is where Snake Sessions came from, an improvised show that infiltrates a skate park alongside the locals as they continue using it.
In Air Time, Branch Nebula comes full circle with a return to the theatre and a more complex and spectacular show honouring our history and using the knowledge of the artforms and subcultures informed by nearly two decades of immersing ourselves and our audiences in street-style performances.
performers/devisers
Cloé Fournier (dance)
Feras Shaheen (dance)
Austin Gray (skateboard)
Tia Pitman (rollerskating)
Xavier Gilbee (BMX)
Alejandro Scarone (Parkour)
Nakula Boag (skateboard)
original performers/devisers
Tristan Hodder (parkour)
Alex Hiam (BMX)
Jakeb Dugdell (BMX)
co-creators
Lee Wilson
Mirabelle Wouters
composer/sound designer
Phil Downing
lighting designer
Fausto Brusamolino
set and costume designer
Mirabelle Wouters
consultant/choreographer
Marnie Palomares
production manager and special effects designer
Alejandro Rolandi
stage manager
Madelaine Osborn
originally produced by
Jennifer Greer Holmes
Trailer
Full show documentation available on request.
Presenting Air Time
Why Program Air Time
- A visually spectacular, large-scale work suited to Main Stage venues
- Bridges contemporary performance and street-style cultures
- Strong appeal to diverse audiences, including younger and first-time theatre-goers
- Technically robust and designed for professional theatre environments
- Offers a work of scale without sacrificing artistic rigour
Format & Scale
- In-theatre presentation
- Designed for medium to large venues and major festival stages
- Custom-built ramp and performance structures integrated into the stage design
- Audience seated in a conventional theatre configuration
The work is conceived specifically for theatrical conditions, allowing for controlled lighting, sound and scenographic impact.
Touring & Presentation
Air Time has been developed for national and international touring, with clear remount and touring frameworks, including:
- Touring ensemble of performers
- Rebuildable set design suitable for transport
- Scalable technical configurations to suit different venue capacities
- Understudy and remount models for extended runs
These options support presentation in a range of major venues while maintaining consistency and safety.
Technical Snapshot
- Theatre-based presentation
- Requires proscenium or equivalent large performance space
- Custom ramp and structural elements installed on stage
- Lighting and sound integral to the dramaturgy
- Full technical rider and stage plans available on request
Tour History
Merrigong Theatre Company
20-22 April 2023,
1.30 & 7.30 pm.
Wollongong Town Hall
Sydney Festival 2025
7-11 January 2025,
2 pm, 6 pm & 8 pm.
Seymour Centre, Chippendale
Air Time was developed with the support of the Australian Government through the Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund. The Sydney Festival season was Proudly funded by NSW Government through Create NSW.
