Dancing the Waterways

Your Comments

1. ‘Oddball Oddball, where are we going today,
   Oddball Oddball let’s be on our way. Oddball, Oddball 21 locks ahead,
   Oddball Oddball just in time for bed’
   
   The Boat-Oddball
   The Crew-Maria, Kate, Mary, Kim and Rob
   Traveling Engineer -John Blundell AKA Dad.
   Support Staff-Rich and Laura
   
   Day 1- The launch
   There was a real buzz about Brindley Place when David Massingham broke the sugar champagne bottle against the side of Oddball the boat, marking the start of the festival.
   The weather was lovely and BBC WM did a live lunchtime feed which was great publicity and great fun too. We performed Paul Gazzola's piece and then drove off around the canal roundabout. It was a fairly windy day so I was a little worried we wouldn't get around in one go. It was fine though and we headed up to Gas Street Basin where I spun Oddball around. By this time we were creating quite a stir at the Canal side cafe, as the customers saw three dancers and a musician on the roof on a moving boat all dancing in unison to a trombone.
   We headed back to Brindley Place to do some interviews and performed the piece a second time for a new crowd that had formed on the bridge.
   It was a real success and a really unique way to launch the festival. We all took Oddball back to her mooring and put her to bed for the night before grabbing some lunch at the Handmade Burger Company. A very good first day.
   
   Day 2-City Centre Performance 
   The weather was not so good today. A lot windier and much cooler. Thank goodness for the extra room in the boiler suits for thermals. It took me longer to get Oddball out of her mooring today as it was so windy, but that was ok, we were all relaxed and looking forward to performance number 3. We moored down the side of the Maltings Pub to rehearse and warm ourselves up then headed around the roundabout to moor just under All Bar One in Brindley Place. Due to it being colder there were not so many people wandering around but we still managed to attract a small crowd to perform to with other spectators looking down from bridges and walkways. To end the piece we drove off down the canal and the other dancers got on the roof once again to dance to onlookers. It is great fun watching peoples expressions and see them smile. 
   
   Day 3-Oddball goes to Wolverhampton. 
   My husband Rich and I moved Oddball from Birmingham to the Top of the Locks together. The journey took us 7 hours in total. 
   I love and I hate this part of the canal. It's great seeing all the old industrial buildings but it's also full of rubbish. You have to be really careful that your propeller doesn't get too wound up in it. When this happens you have to moor up and unravel whatever offensive material has entwined itself around and cut the propeller free, this can be very time consuming and very cold, as you are up to your elbows in canal water. 
   We were making good time until we got to the factory locks, a flight of three. After the third lock we had to moor and untangle the weed hatch. It was very time consuming. We also discovered that the bilge pump had got so clogged up with crud that it had died and the engine compartment was holding water. Rich put a new pump on and bailed out the engine, he also untangled the weed hatch while I got a hot bucket of water for him to wash up in as the water was so cold. However, it was a gloriously sunny day and it was a very pleasant place to stop as their were young people canoeing in the canal. It gave me a chance to do some flyering as well. After Rich had sorted the engine we got off again arriving into Wolverhampton at 5pm. It had been a successful trip and a very pleasant one. Boating is so much fun when the sun is shining. Let's hope the good weather will stay.
   
   Day 4-Performance Wolverhampton, top of the 21 locks.
   Another lovely sunny day. We all had a lot of energy so looned about on the grass by the boat for an hour with Rob, our trombone player, accompanying us in order to warm up. This alone attracted some interest.  We moved Oddball over to the other side of the basin and performed, it was received well. After the performance we moved the boat back again. A short day today but we have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, ''Oddball, Oddball 21 locks ahead''.
   
   Day 5-21 Locks day and show
   The sun was shining at 9am which was already a very good sign. By 9.45am we had four ladies awaiting the start of the performance who had come especially from Dudley to see us perform. It was going to be a good day. A group of my students from Making Choreographers came to watch us and helped flyer prior to the show starting as our IDFB crew were stuck in Birmingham. Birmingham New Street had had a complete power cut, but the show must go on.
   We performed a little after 10am to a crowd of about 20 then we headed into our first lock and the audience came with us, it was a great feeling, I felt like the pied piper driving Oddball into the first of 21 locks. Everyone helped out winding paddles, and opening lock doors. I drove Oddball through the first few locks with the IDBF film crew taking footage. Some of the time I had a cameraman on the hatch, a foot in front of me, perched on the roof. No pressure then! I kept imagining bumping the side only a touch and him toppling in with all his very expensive equipment but it was fine, it all went very smoothly.
   In lock 6 we stopped to  have a bit of an improvisation session on the boat. There are some fabulous shots from the IDFB team at this lock that I hope will get put on here soon. We had a great time jumping on and off, playing with the barge poles and the ropes. After an hour we decided we'd better push on and stopped again just shy of lock 13. A family had come to see the show and had travelled all the way from West Yorkshire so we moored up to perform the piece, especially for them. We had an audience of 17 this time. The IDFB team interviewed some of the Making Choreographers and we then stopped in lock 13 for them to have a go at choreographing their own piece on us. 
   They had everyone rolling back on the boat which with 7 people on the roof made Oddball rock a lot and made you feel like you were on a rollercoaster if you were unfortunate enough to be inside the boat at the time. They all had great fun exploring their first sight specific piece and were all happy and excited when they finished. We then got on our way as we still had 8 locks to go and everyone was starting to get tired. 
   By 4pm we were down to a team of five. Rich had turned up on a bike to help, he cycled to the next set of locks to set them up so I could drive straight in. By 4.30pm we had reached the bottom. Yippee.
   I turned right at the junction and dropped Kate and Kim off. We continued towards the next junction stopping on the way to top up with diesel and took a left onto the Shropshire Union canal where we had to go through a lock which was only 1 inch high! Mary and her boyfriend Bos tried to close the lock door but it wouldn't sit flush, so Rich had to push the other door open whilst they held theirs too. I thought he was going to give himself a hernia, he was dripping with sweat, but his strength won out and he got the lock door open. We moored on the left to top up with water and said goodbye to Mary and Bos. Now we were down to 2.
   We cruised along a little further and moored in Pendleford. We headed across the park and found a Morrison’s with a pub in the car park. We got some supplies and did some flyering and put up posters in the supermarket and pub and headed back to the boat. We had planned to moor up for the night at the Pendleford nature reserve.
   By now the landscape had changed entirely, no signs of any warehouses or old factories, just open countryside and lots of wildlife. I tried to moor but got grounded in the silt and Rich had to jump up on the roof of the boat and use the barge pole to push us out. We tried to moor again further along the canal, but the same thing happened. In total we got grounded six times whilst attempting to moor for the night, we were in fits of laughter. We finally decided to sit on the roof and have a drink in this idyllic spot before continuing on-that is if we hadn’t got stuck whilst sitting there.
   Further ahead we saw a whole line of moored boats, no doubt they had tried and failed to moor elsewhere like us. We headed past them a fair way and moored successfully for the night.We went for a walk back along the boats flyering as we went and chatting to people about what we were doing, everyone was very interested. We then had dinner in the cratch and headed to bed at 10pm. It had been a long day but a very rewarding one.
   
   Day 6-Somewhere between Pendleford and Brewood.
   Rich and I woke up to the sound of birds, it was delightful. We had coffee in the cratch over looking fields of rape seed. We continued our journey to Brewood arriving there at around 2pm. We headed into the town to have a bit of an explore. Brewood is lovely, full of unique houses and fascinating buildings and really friendly people. We had a drink in The Admiral beer garden and headed back to the boat to have a late lunch. Down by the canal is so peaceful with the birds singing and the waterways are busy which boats passing by. My dad turned up at 6pm to join us and we ate together on the boat and once again by 10pm we were all ready for bed, it must be all the fresh air.
   
   Day 7-Brewood(Monday)
   The rest of the team arrived at 11am and were impressed with the setting. Prior to this we had washed the boat really for the show and Dad had changed the air filter which meant the engine was purring nicely again. By 12.30pm we had quite a crowd of at least twenty people from
   

   Said maria Blundell-Palethorpe on at 00:36am on 7th May 2010