Our last (Re)presenting the Body lecture was the perfect example of a community being brought together. The whole module had progressively led to our class being completely comfortable with each other. The module created a bond between the class and there was a feeling of complete trust within the small community. It’s a complete shame the module is no longer running as I have experienced as a result of these lessons the unity a community can bring.

Last weekend was Ham House’s family fun day, which we participated in by doing face painting and games for the children. It was a satisfying day, as the children appeared to have extremely enjoyed themselves. The friendly and relaxed atmosphere also allowed the opportunity for the more timid children to get involved. It was rewarding to know how we had positively impacted on their day, to the extent that many of the children did not want to leave. This was one of the highlights of this module as we were directly working with the community and having an impact on their lives, if it be only for that day. I am particularly looking forward to interacting with the community on the day of the event after experiencing the fulfilment our work gave to the public last weekend.

We went to visit a karate club in Richmond who will be participating within the parade. The club was extremely small yet despite consisting of around only 12 members, they ranged in age from about 6 to about 45. Upon visiting this club, it made me realise what a difference this event can actually make to the community. The event will open the opportunity for small businesses to get more publicity and hopefully help to keep them up and running. I experienced a sense of nostalgia when visiting them, as much of my childhood had revolved around karate training. Despite being a very small community of people, I was able to relate to their passion of what they do which ultimately made the thought of helping the club continue to run an extremely rewarding notion.

We collected some materials from Twickenham so we could start creating the animals for the story. We are going to use laundry baskets to create their structure, as they can be reshaped and yet still work to create a strong frame. It has proven tricky to make the animals look individual and get the shape of each of them, however they are beginning to get finished and work extremely well as puppet like creations on bamboo sticks that will be held in the air for everyone to see. Although we are planning how the skins of the animals will be created we are going to leave this part of the characters to be finished by the community on the build day. We have begun to practice moving with the puppets so we get used to the way they work.