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ALLIANCE FRANÇAISE DE BRUNEI (AF Brunei) is celebrating their annual event – Francophonie Week - from the 16th to 22nd January 2012. This year, the Francophonie Week 2012 is supported by Total E&P Borneo B.V, Baiduri Bank Bhd - the official bank of the event, The Empire Hotel and Country Club, Jerudong Park Country Club Sdn Bhd, Fleur de Lys Bakeshop and BRUNEIONS.COM.

Internationally, this event is a celebration of the French language and culture, and aims to create more awareness on the different regions of the Francophone organization. It also serves to create dialogue among these various French-speaking regions that shared the language and culture.

The Francophonie Week is a week full of entertainment and activities for the public. Alliance Française de Brunei is focusing on the promotion of local artists and all that is Brunei whilst incorporating the French theme of the 10 words of Francophonie into all the activities planned for week. The 10 words of Francophonie this year are: Âme (soul), autrement (differently), caractère (character/nature), chez  (at), confier (entrust/confide), histoire (history/story), naturel (natural), penchant (fondness/tendency), songe (dream), and transports (transports). AF Brunei utilizes Francophonie Week to provide a platform and support for local Brunei artists to exhibit their work to the public and to venture further into the artistic and cultural endeavors between Bruneians and Francophones.

Alliance Française de Brunei is a non-profit organization founded in 1986. It is dedicated to promoting the French language and culture as well as to develop the historical friendship between Brunei and France, Bruneians and Francophones. Besides being a French cultural and language centre, it is a place of exchanging and sharing ideas among people from different cultural backgrounds and experiences. Today, Alliance Française is the leading cultural network worldwide, with 1,040 establishments in 136 countries on all 5 continents. Each year, 450,000 people, of all ages, attend Alliances Françaises to learn French and more than 6 million people participate in their French cultural activities.  The network is coordinated by the Alliance Française Foundation (Fondation Alliance Française).

During the week, the public can tune into some specially arranged activities for the week:

Monday (16th) - visitors can view an art and photo exhibition at the Atrium, The Empire Hotel and Country Club after the official opening. There will be paintings and installations by Faizal Hamdan, Syen Sofian, Sam Siren, Alwie Salleh and a set of black and white photos by upcoming art photographer, Abby Lim.

Tuesday (17th) - French film buffs will be able to catch a French movie screening at the AF office between 8 and 10.30 p.m

Wednesday (18th) -  Works by local artists will also be displayed at the Alliance Francaise de Brunei office from Wednesday night. The artwork will carry themes based on the 10 words chosen for the Francophonie week.

Thursday (18th) - An Improvisation Workshop will be conducted at the AF Office between 7 - 10 p.m. It will involved instant acting where participants will be given scenarios where they need to improvise with minimal script and props. 

Saturday (20th) - A concert by local artistes who will sing in English and French will be held at the Mini Amphitheatre in Jerudong Park Playground between 8 - 10 p.m.

Sunday (21th) - It's Kids Activities day at the Jerudong Park Playground play area and field between 2 - 5 p.m.  The week's events will close with a closing ceremony at the Empire Hotel and Country Club bewteen 8 and 10 p.m.


During the theater workshop held at the Alliance Française office on Thursday, staff at the AF intend to introduce Improvisational Theater to the Bruneians. In fact, one of the first and most famous show form, the 'Match d’improvisation' (theater-sport) was invented in Quebec - a French speaking country - by Robert Gravel in 1977. During the Francophonie Week, the concept and Gravel's different exercises will be explored.
 
Improvisational Theater is a game which combines team work and imagination. It is also a technique to improve one's confidence and develop one's listening, sharing, reactive and imagination skills, through a lot of different improvisation exercises.



AF staff has informed Bruneions that participants can expect to have a very good time, and the workshop will boost their confidence and brighten their day. The atmosphere is always very friendly and fun, and the exercises can also help the participants go through any confidence problems they may encounter in real life. They will learn to express their inner self.
  
The kind of exercises participants can expect are many. They will go through a lot of characters, feelings and situations. They will start with warm-up exercises on voice, concentration and listening skills, then move on to work on their imagination, interpretation and construction in a broad range of situations - in a park, an airport, on a boat, in an office, on a desert island, in a French kitchen, etc.

For instance, you will create a character and make him go through a broad range of feelings; you will take part in an orchestra without any instrument; you will learn how to trust other people by following their lead; you will participate in a TV program or encounter and interpret people from all ages and all situations in many different places, following the teacher's advice and much more, and all these in one session only!

The class will be conducted in English and the theme during the workshop is connected to this year’s Francophonie's chosen words - soul/âme, differently/autrement, character/caractère, at/chez, to give/confier, history/histoire, natural/naturel, fondness/penchant, dream/songe, transports/transports.

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND ENQUIRY, CALL 8693401 | 8646077

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