Alejandro López Rodas, better known as “Landro”, traveled to the United States two years ago to boost his career as an artist. The years away from his native country were worth it, as Landro is considered the first Guatemalan to dance for an NBA team. His goal is to be a reference for the next generations of dancers in Guatemala and to become an artist who dominates dance, singing, musical production, among other manifestations of art that appear along the way.
Born in the Capital City of Guatemala and raised in zone 2 and 5, Landro developed as a young man in constant movement and experimentation. He says that in his childhood he stood out in school settings for his dynamism. “He always said ‘Yo, miss! Put me on. ‘ I would mime her, she would play the piano, play drums and dance, which was what I enjoyed the most, obviously, ”he said.
It was until she was 15 years old (2015) that she knew dance as a discipline, before she only enjoyed stepping on stage and expressing herself. Landro still has vivid memories of his first dance class with “Elisa”, who always worked in the Hip-Hop scene in Guatemala.
“She told me ‘look, mijo, today I’m going to give a class, I saw him dance and I liked it a lot; Why don’t you stay in the afternoon? ‘ Look, what did I know that that class was going to change me for the rest of my life. That class whenever I remember it brings me feelings because what would I know, it was so random. I took that class and fell in love with the dance; I did realize there: wow, I do like this ”, Landro recalled.
THE DANCE IS ONLY ONE PART
After the eventual classes with Elisa, he learned the basics of dance on YouTube, and later joined national productions such as El chico del piso 512. Landro admits that dancing for an audience was the first step to being recognized in ways he never imagined, such as being the image of a fried chicken restaurant.
“They saw me and said ‘look, tomorrow we will look at it on a photography set’ and I had modeled in my life but I said ‘well, let’s do it’. Look, a month passed and my face was in Guatemala and El Salvador, on the buses, on the billboards and I had no idea what I had gotten myself into ”.
These experiences showed Landro that he could master any creative space. At that time he met producer Yefry Lemus, now a “buddy”, who suggested that an integral artist must act, sing and dance. This new panorama opened the mind of the young man; To achieve this achievement he knew exactly what he had to do: “I have to get out of here.”
A PROMISE IN THE UNITED STATES
Landro came to San Antonio Texas as a tourist, his mother lived there at that time; After a long wait and paperwork, he finally obtained US residency. “I looked for the way and that is a great story, but I arrived in San Antonio Texas in 2018 and I kept dancing and training, then I saw what studies there were and I started to get into it, I didn’t even know English and that’s another thing that I learned that dance is, even if it is a cliché, a universal language ”.
When he arrived in San Antonio, the young man saw the dancers of the San Antonio Spurs: “And I was more than amazed, something took me from wanting to be there and I remember that I took a photo and I took a video of my mother saying ‘look, mommy, I promise I’ll be there’ ”. What he is most grateful for in this test of luck is the support of his mother, who despite listening to her son’s big dreams always told him: “Yes, mijo, I know you can.”
“I know I’m going to be there, I said, and look, my mom always gives me the best gift she has given me is to let me dream, not to limit myself, because many times parents tell you no, how are you going to believe? He feeds you, the usual, you know, “said the dancer.
WORK, TRAIN, MORE WORK AND MORE TRAIN
It took 7 months of training and preparation before landing a job as a dancer in the US Landro worked in a restaurant taking out the trash and cleaning tables, while training every day to get back on stage. He explained that auditions for the NBA are quite exclusive, where executives tour dance studios to select profiles of interest. Landro was notified of this opportunity the day before the audition. “That’s why you always have to train as if you had an audition tomorrow because you never know,” he said.
He described his pre audition as “incredible”, but he was not confident and came to the official audition with the attitude to the maximum. He explained that this was the most professional audition he ever attended, which consisted of three phases: the dance test, the attitude and spirit test, and the round of questions.
“Obviously I did the dance well, the energetic one because I am a very outgoing person, I speak here, I speak there, I scream, but I didn’t know any English, nothing. He didn’t even know what to say; I started yelling in Spanish and they liked that. Now the interview, and that is something I always like to tell, is the first time in my life that not knowing English has benefited me. Although it sounds strange like that ”.
There were 4 applicants at his side, all Americans and he was the only Latin American. Landro listened to the responses of his teammates and repeated them in a different order, but said that the fifth question was the one that made him stand out: What would you say if a fan asked you something controversial about an NBA player?
“There he had a more serious tone and when it was my turn I said well, what would Landro really say? and I thought that I don’t know English; Then I answered that I would say ‘sorry, I don’t speak English’ and I swear to you, everyone started laughing and the funniest thing is that he meant it! But when I saw that they all laughed, I laughed too, ”he remembered between laughter. That question was one of the key parts for me even though I didn’t know English ”.
“ALEJANDRO, YOU JOINED THE TEAM”
A month later (and 7 months after his arrival in Texas) he received the expected call. “I get the call saying ‘Alejandro, you made it to the team’; I didn’t believe it, it was something… I don’t know, I didn’t even have tears, “he commented, as starting his career in productions in Guatemala and ending up at 19 on an NBA team” was a feeling of something unreal. “
“At Spurs I feel like I already achieved something that I had always wanted and something that I learned in obtaining this that I always longed for is that happiness is not about having achieved it because you are happy for a month and then what? It becomes a habit and I was very happy on the road when I was training, when I went to the audition, when I saw that I was climbing; that’s what fills you, what keeps you alive, with the spark, “said Landro about his greatest triumph in dance.
LANDRO, PROFESSIONAL DANCER AND SOON MUSICAL ARTIST
For Landro his last goal as a dancer is to dance at some big awards like the Grammys, “to dance for whoever, but to play that stage, that’s my last goal as a dancer to inspire more people and then I will dedicate myself to more things because I believe that I can do much more in art ”. To expand his talents in other areas of art, the Guatemalan of origin left his contract with the San Antonio Spurs to undertake a new tour in Miami, where he currently resides and gave this interview.
“Besides dancing, one of my passions is music. I moved to Miami not so much because of dance but because I want to get into the music industry. I have been doing it for three years, what happens is that I have not wanted to launch so official because I want to do it well, not on the run. Here I have had contact with more serious producers and I want to throw something that people think ‘wow, this guy is serious, he is not starting’ “, he declared.
He described that another of his aspirations is to achieve what Guatemalans have not achieved, “and why?”, He questioned, “to inspire more people like the athletes of the Olympic Games.” He explained that as a dancer he did not have any Guatemalan reference, therefore, he seeks to be the inspiration for dancers in Guatemala.
“They are small things that people don’t understand, but they do affect, why do you think there are so many artists in Puerto Rico? Because they have so much artist upstairs that a child comes and says ‘ah, I can be like him’. What I would like is to inspire more people in my country, you have to try ”, he concluded.
