Lander Patrick was born in 1989 and moved to Portugal that same year. He joined the volleyball federation to ward off his chronic asthma, eventually training in dance. He studied at Escola de Dança do Conservatório Nacional, graduated from Escola Superior de Dança in Lisbon, and trained at ArtEZ University of the Arts. Being awarded first prize at the Koreografskih Minijatura Festival (Serbia) for Noodles Never Break When Boiled (2012) encouraged him to continue pursuing choreographic creation. He has collaborated with artists such as Luís Guerra, Tomaz Simatovic, Marlene Monteiro Freitas, and Margarida Bettencourt.
In 2010, he met Jonas Lopes at Escola Superior de Dança, and the two began a collaboration as co-creators, Jonas&Lander. Their work stands out in the Portuguese dance scene for its strong signature style, blending elements from the various performing arts. The duo’s career includes many author pieces, such as Cascas d’OvO (2013), Matilda Carlota (2014), Arrastão (2015), Adorabilis (2017), Lento e Largo (2019), and Coin Operated (2019). They were distinguished as “Aerowaves Priority Company”, they were awarded second prize at No Ballet — International Choreography Competition, and they were nominated for the SPA Prize for Best Choreography in 2019, for Lento e Largo. In 2015, they founded Sinistra, a fado house located in the town of Sintra, whose legal structure currently works as a production house for Jonas&Lander’s authorial work. They participated in the RTP2 documentary series Portugal que Dança (2017) and were cast in the film Body Buildings (2020). In 2020, Jonas&Lander began creating Bate Fado, which premiered in 2021 and was nominated by the Portuguese newspapers Público and Expresso as best dance performance of the year.
Photograph:
© Jonas Lopes
