She remembers being curled up in a trunk and her heart racing. The applause died down, the music rang out, and she leapt from her hiding place. It was an appearance in a rhinestone corset, fuchsia dress and sophisticated blond bun. This February 12, 2011, the public of TF1 thus discovered Katrina Patchett in Dance with the stars. Ellis Island atmosphere at the beginning of the 20th century twisted in glamour. “The choreography was on We No Speak Americano. Mr. Pokora played a Frenchman arriving in the United States and bim!, his partner – me -, arose from the luggage, ”she refreshes our memory, more than eleven years later.
There was fantasy, cartoon, in this staging, but this premiere also had everything of a symbol, probably unconscious. Because the biography of the dancer attests to it, the expression “living in one’s suitcase” seems to have been created for her.
The journey begins 14,267 kilometers from Studio 217 in Plaine Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis). Direction Perth, Australia, where Katrina Patchett was born on December 12, 1986. Her parents, he English, she Australian, have long formed one of the most respected couples in the world in sport dance. A reference. Retired from competitions, they settled in this coastal town in the west of the country and opened their dance school in 1983.
“Where is the partner? »
Little Katrina very early showed the desire to follow in their footsteps. She assures her, she was in no way forced to follow their path, on the contrary: “My parents didn’t want me to start so young, but they couldn’t stop me. At the age of 2, I asked to have a partner to participate in competitions. They told me to wait until I was 6 years old. The year she was 3 years old, her father agreed to train her (“He saw that I was dancing alone, he didn’t want me to do anything”), and she then discovered the effort, the rigor , the technique. On the morning of her sixth birthday, in a small tornado, she tumbles into the room of dad and mom Patchett. ” Where is he ? ” ” Who ? “Where is the partner?” »
It will take some time to find it. Because little boys who dance don’t run the streets of Perth and elsewhere. “As I was tall for my age, my parents selected, among their older students, a boy who corresponded to me physically, Adrien. With the latter – who is still her friend today – she won her first national championship at the age of 7. Katrina is growing and so is her taste for competition. Her father warns her: “Apart from competitions, don’t show off, otherwise the dance is over. On the other hand, as soon as you set foot on the floor, ask yourself who will be ranked second behind you today. »
“Either you stay and you stagnate, or you leave”
At 15, first suitcase, first big departure. In Melbourne, on the other side of the country, she dances with a partner eight years her senior. Their collaboration lasted a year. “After that, my mother told me: ‘Either you stay and you stagnate, or you leave.’ My parents had their contacts in Europe where the circuit is excellent. I was in touch with a Danish dancer, but I didn’t know if I was ready to leave my country,” says Katrina Patchett.
His procrastination ends in a shopping mall. The dancer says: “My mother went shopping. She came back half an hour later, and said to me: “It’s good, I took your plane ticket, you leave in two weeks”. She had chosen the option where I could, for twelve months, buy a return the day before for the next day. I never needed it. “She then feels” a good adrenaline “. From the top of his 16 years, feels “already adult”. She thinks: “My career starts now. »
Odd jobs
August 2003, she landed in Denmark. As she retrieves her suitcase, it does not cross her mind that, a few months later, she will see snow for the first time in her life. It’s not a vacation that awaits him. To the six to eight hours of daily training, she adds odd jobs and reduces her hours of sleep to a bare minimum. “I’ve been a cleaning lady, I delivered newspapers in a down jacket from head to toe at 5 a.m., I worked at a 7-Eleven [une épicerie], she lists. My family was not rich but did everything possible to provide for me. I tried to show my loved ones that I also gave of myself to thank them for their efforts. »
Three years later, comes what she describes as “the most beautiful story”. She is in Brighton (Great Britain) to find a new partner. They slip her the name of this Frenchman she doesn’t know. A certain Maxime Dereymez. She is 19, he is 24. He has just separated from his partner with whom he has won the French dance sport championship eight times. “I’ve never had a crush on love. But I did three dance steps with him and I knew I was going to make my career with him. It was amazing. Three days later, I moved to France. Five months later we won the national championship. »
Start again, again and again
Then, the hard blow. “Maxime decided to take another direction in his career that did not include me,” she eludes. She picks up her suitcases: Hong Kong, Slovenia, Italy… She despairs a little: “I wanted a home base to build myself. I was wasting time by always having to start from scratch. »
In 2010, while she was spending a weekend in Paris, her Italian partner at the time sent her an SMS. To end their partnership. Hard blow, bis. Start again, again. “How many times am I going to take that in the face? she thinks. That day, Maxime Dereymez is seated opposite her. He tells her it’s a sign that she should team up with him again. She spends the night thinking, writing on paper the conditions required for them to dance together again. He accepts them. A month later, the hearings of Dance with the stars begin.
She doesn’t speak a word of French. She will learn the language on her own afterwards, without taking lessons, asking her interlocutors to repeat it each time she makes a pronunciation or syntax error. But at the time of the tests, it gets stuck. The casting director asks Maxime Dereymez: “Do we have the same – same physique, same level of dance – but who speaks better French? He replies: “If there was one, I wouldn’t have gone to Australia to find it. »
“My mother calls Maxime ‘my son'”
“Of all my partners, Maxime is the one with whom I manage to express myself best and vice versa. He is more than my buddy, he is my friend, my brother. And it’s not an image, insists Katrine Patchett. My mother, who calls him “my son”, will come to France at the end of the year and we will celebrate Christmas with Maxime’s family.
Go back. The long-awaited call reaches her: she will indeed be one of the professional dancers of Dance with the stars. “I had just come back to France. I worked at night in a bar. I had zero money. When they told me I was taken, I went to the supermarket opposite, I took the cheapest bottle and I poured myself a small glass to toast alone, in my 15 m2 with view of the cemetery. The horrible picture,” she laughs, thinking about it.
On her cloud, she dreads the storm when she announces the news to her parents. “I was afraid of disappointing them, that they would resent me for not having lived my competitive career to the end,” she admits. “Pff, it’s not real dance,” shunned, for form, his father, who puts technique first. Katrine Patchett is quickly reassured: “They were proud and happy for me that I could earn a living and be recognized in dance. »
Dancing with the All Stars in Australia
The icing on the cake, on the arm of Mr. Pokora, she won, on March 19, 2011, the first season of Dance with the stars. Nine others will follow, with partners with profiles and talents of dancers as varied as Cédric Pioline, Brian Joubert, Brahim Zahibat or Vincent Niclo. It has appeared in all editions, except last year’s. And for good reason, it is in the Australian version that she waltzed. ” It was not planned. I had returned to Australia during the second confinement, I wanted to take the opportunity to see my family. When I learned that an All Stars season was preparing, I sent an email to the producer, ten minutes later I was taken. And to explain this express recruitment: “They already knew my head and my dance, because, after the American and British versions, the French version is one of the best in the world and the most scrutinized. »
For the twelfth season, launched Friday on TF1, it returns to the French spotlight. “I don’t see it as a competition but as entertainment,” she warns. If I win a second trophy, that’s fine, but that’s not what motivates me today. I want to give the best of myself in my work, highlight the artists, respect their image, highlight their strengths and hide their weaknesses as much as possible. »
What do you think is her trademark? “I was lucky to have learned the dance from the start with a very technical approach. And then I have this somewhat extravagant, very expressive, American-style Anglo-Saxon side, who loves to perform. When I arrived in France, I had to adapt a bit. At first glance, people are more reserved. »
French-style
She has, however, become the most French of Australians. His friends tell him so when they notice his mastery of tricolor expressions – during our interview, we are surprised to hear him say “Rebelote”. “I’m also very French in the sense that I love cheese, wine, refined things. In Australia, people eat big meals [elle mime ce qu’on imagine être un gigantesque burger dégoulinant de fromage et de sauce], I like to taste. »
She hesitates to apply for French nationality. “I have dual British and Australian nationality. When I landed in Europe, I therefore had a European passport. And then there was Brexit. I had to apply for a residence permit. I found it crazy, when I had been living and paying my taxes in France for more than ten years. She continues: “As you are only allowed two passports and there is no way I would renounce my Australian citizenship, I would have to renounce my British citizenship. This is difficult for me to consider, symbolically, in relation to my father. But, at the same time, I want to live in France until the end of my life, so it’s a real question that I ask myself. Her residence permit having been granted to her for ten years, she gives herself time to think about it.
For the future of her career, Katrina Patchett already knows the answers. His goal: to keep one foot in the dance and challenge himself. She created her company to develop activities related to artistic direction. “I constantly challenge myself. I think it comes from my competitive spirit. I do not want to stay on a given. I want to open up to other things. Always prepare for what’s next. “Ideas and projects full of the suitcase.