Next Friday: Famed Cri-Cri
Comes to Laredo Civic Center

Next Friday, April 21 is a day that local children may really be jumping about.

That's the day that "Cri-Cri: El Grillito Cantor" (Cri Cri: The Singing Cricket) returns to Laredo for the Texas A&M International University 2006 Spring Dance Concert at 7 p.m. in the Laredo Civic Center.

This event is free and open to the public and made possible by support provided by the University's College of Arts and Sciences Department of Fine and Performing Arts and The City of Laredo.

The Civic Center concert includes performances by TAMIU students enrolled in the dance program. It features costumed characters that come to life in a variety of dances that borrow from ballet, modern, jazz, tap and Spanish dance and teach some valuable lessons about life.

There will also be two separate performances during the day for students from Laredo Independent School District, United ISD and local private schools at 9 and 11 a.m.

Originally created by the Mexican-born Francisco Gabilondo Soler as a radio educational show teaching children positive values, "Cri-Cri reached its fame in México and Latin America in the 1940s. It continues to be a popular icon to this day.

For more information, please contact Bede Leyendecker, TAMIU assistant professor of dance, at 326.2625, e-mail bleyendecker@tamiu.edu, or visit offices in the Center for the Fine and Performing Arts, room 115.

University office hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Journalists who need additional information or help with media requests and interviews should contact the Office of Public Relations, Marketing and Information Services at prmis@tamiu.edu