Patricia Zhou – The Shifter Eternal Shape

It’s a rainy Saturday afternoon in early February and a crowd is assembling inside London’s Saatchi Yates Gallery. Some have come to see the latest exhibition from Angela Santana, a Swiss-born, New York-based artist renowned for her vibrant, large-scale oil paintings that reimagine historical depictions of the female body. Others have simply entered to escape the English weather. Regardless of their reason for visiting, all the patrons of the ground-floor gallery space are greeted by the same, unexpected sight: a ballerina.

Ferragamo top, bodysuit & leggings, stylist’s own socks, Puma shoes

The dancer in question is Patricia Zhou, a 31-year-old Canadian native who has performed with some of the world’s most prestigious ballet companies, including The Royal Ballet, the Staatsballett Berlin, and the L.A. Dance Project. She’s here to model for PUSS PUSS’ latest editorial shoot, donning looks from Chanel and Alaïa among others as the photographer snaps her picture in front of a growing crowd. While she contorts into various poses, the visitors applaud, erupting into astonished oohs and aahs (backbending in couture is no easy feat, after all).

If Patricia notices the commotion her appearance has caused, she doesn’t let it rattle her. “I’m not even really dancing,” she demurs, then dashes into a mad series of twirls across the gallery floor. This ability to remain calm under pressure has served her well throughout her career, from her early dance training in Beijing to her decision to leave the insular world of ballet companies and become a freelance dancer, choreographer and model. Today, it just so happens that her job is putting on a surprise show while completing a high-end fashion shoot.

Such chance occurrences aren’t out of the ordinary for Patricia, whose trajectory in the dance world and beyond has taken her on a wild ride everywhere from Canada to China, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom. “Our journeys aren’t linear,” Patricia tells me over a break from a rehearsal for an upcoming production a few days later, her face still flushed from the exertion. “A lot of times we’re told that there’s just one way to achieve our goals and that’s what you have to do to get there. But that’s not reality.”
Patricia’s own journey began when her parents signed her and her older sister up for dance classes in Michigan, where the family moved to the year she was six. By age 10, she was winning titles like ‘Junior Miss Dance’ of the Great Lakes region and spending all her time in the dance studio.
While visiting relatives in China one summer, Patricia’s parents enrolled her in private lessons at the rigorous Beijing Dance Academy. According to Patricia, the idea was that the lessons would break her dancing spirit and she would return to the United States ready to focus on more conventional pursuits, like academics.

It backfired. Rather than buckle under the pressure, Patricia thrived in the intensity of her new environment. The Academy soon called her parents with a request: they wanted her to stay and train year-round. “I realised how work and discipline can transform somebody,” Patricia explains of her experience in Beijing. “There was an older girl who went to the school and was in the lessons with me. For the first time, I could see what it was supposed to look like and what the perfect ideal was. That completely changed my entire life and the way I approach everything.”

Alaïa top & skirt, Paloma Wool shoes, Tom Wood earrings & necklace

Baserange top, Nensi Dojaka leggings, Aeyde shoes, Sophie Bille Brahe earrings

Although her parents didn’t allow her to stay in Beijing, Patricia left with a renewed sense of determination to succeed in the field of dance. She then enrolled at the Kirov Academy in Washington, D.C., an elite school known for its Russian style of training (the East Coast, her parents reasoned, was closer than China).

After four years there, Patricia participated in the Prix de Lausanne, an international competition held annually in Lausanne, Switzerland. The Prix is the equivalent of the Olympics of ballet, accepting only the best young dancers from around the world and awarding prizes to a select few.
Patricia won both a top prize and a coveted apprenticeship with The Royal Ballet. Still, life in a prominent ballet company like The Royal Ballet proved harder than anticipated. “As a young dancer, you’re coming from school where you’re the best and then you have to start from scratch,” she says of her early years as a professional. “Most of the people in the company have been there for five, 10, 15 years. They’re not gonna be like, ‘Let me befriend this new person.’ There were definitely people that were out to get you a little bit. Everyone is focused on themselves.”
Despite these challenges, Patricia persevered, landing a position at Germany’s Staatsballett Berlin after completing her apprenticeship in London. She stayed with the company for five years, touring around the world and performing works by choreographers including George Balanchine, Nacho Duato and Hofesh Shechter.

In 2017, she was recruited by choreographer and artistic director Benjamin Millepied to join the L.A. Dance Project, a contemporary ballet company based in Los Angeles. Once again, Patricia packed up her life and moved halfway across the globe – this time, to California.
Back in the US, Patricia still found herself struggling to reckon with certain dynamics present in ballet troupes. “Dancing is such a generous art: you are sharing your emotion and telling a story through your body,” she explains. “But it’s a system that isn’t necessarily built for fostering a sense of being able to continually give.”

As she was growing more mature, this reality only became more stark. “In companies, they call you girls and boys even if you are 40 years old. It’s challenging to try and come to terms with how to advocate for yourself in a world which doesn’t necessarily want you to do that.”

Patricia’s own shoe (left), Jimmy Choo shoe (right)

Extreme Cashmere cardigan & tops, Chopova Lowena skirt, Alighieri earrings

Alaïa top & skirt, Paloma Wool shoes

McQueen bodice & dress, Alighieri earrings