Conversations with Patricia Zhou

As we launch our newest collection, Floe, we spoke to the face of our campaign, dancer and choreographer Patricia Zhou about her journey, love for dance and her favourite jewellery. 

“Hello! My name is Patricia Zhou, I am a dancer, choreographer and filmmaker based in London. I grew up in Canada and the US and after discovering my love for ballet at 13, attended a professional ballet school in Washington D.C. for four years which gave me a great education and led to me moving around the world dancing professionally with companies such as the Royal Ballet, Staatsballett-Berlin and L.A. Dance Project before going freelance at the beginning of COVID to pursue creating my own work.
It all happened quite organically and I like to think I was lucky by starting late as I didn’t have any expectations of where I’d go and what I’d do. It made everything always feel like a great stroke of luck, even though a lot of hard work definitely went into every step, and allowed me to dream of things outside of the traditional ballet route.”

“Yes, I have! In a way I have COVID to thank for that as I would never have been brave enough to choreograph before the pandemic. Having that time to myself without others’ eyes (and judgement) on me was so liberating for me.
Teaching, I have been doing since I was about 16 or 17 — though I was kind of forced into it by my mom as she thought I needed something to apply myself to in the summer holidays.
In the last five or six years I have really become a lot more passionate about it though. In the same way as choreography it really lends itself into a position of leadership and encouragement. Not having had many nice experiences in the institutions that I worked in made me really want to always create environments for people to thrive by guiding them to find the best in themselves and reminding people to keep looking for the joy within movement. I do still really enjoy doing others’ work as well though. It’s nice to discover alternative ways of moving through their choreography and to keep learning new movement pathways. It is also so nice as someone who always has to constantly forge their path to be able to hop into someone else’s boat for a little while, just go with the flow and, most importantly, only have to think about the dancing bit for once!”

“Thank you so much! We are very excited. I find some of my favourite pieces have been the simpler pieces. However, I love pieces that are a bit different and tactile in the way that just makes you want to touch them. I also have super fun, colourful and chunky pieces that I adore but I find the simpler ones to be the most wearable for every day.”

“I’m actually not quite sure! I’m waiting for my next show to come around, I guess that’s the nature of freelance. I have been a lot more intentional with the jobs I agree to in the last couple of years as it’s so important for me to be really inspired by the work and by the people around me — but that means waiting for opportunities that really align with me and my values. I am teaching quite a lot at the moment! You can find me at Danceworks or Pineapple most weeks, and I teach classes mainly for intermediate-level dancers and up, but sometimes I do teach a beginner class every now and again, too. I am also hoping to get back into creating my own dance films again — something I also picked up during the pandemic — so do keep your eyes open for that!”