Mayte Garcia is a professional dancer, actor, and singer who has been performing professionally for over 40 years. She first came to the public’s attention way back in 1981 when she appeared on an American show called That’s Incredible! as (apparently) the world’s youngest professional ballet dancer. After that, she spent time studying ballet in Germany before becoming a dancer for (and the eventual wife of) pop icon Prince. From the late 1990s onwards, she also became an artistic director and choreographer, working with the likes of Britney Spears and Chaka Khan. She has also appeared in several leading reality shows, including Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Hollywood Exes, and 2 Broke Girls. She was also a judge on the reality talent contest Dance Your Ass Off. Her memoir, The Most Beautiful: My Life with Prince was published in 2017.
Garcia was born in Alabama in 1973. Her father was in the US Military and so she grew up in both America and Germany, whilst also spending summers with her extended family in Puerto Rico. She got her first major career break in her late teens when she became part of Prince’s performance group, The New Power Generation. Soon, she was playing an Egyptian goddess who became the central character of Prince’s 1992 concept album Love Symbol. She also played the character in the accompanying film, 3 Chains o’Gold.
In the early 2000s, Garcia worked with another pop idol, Britney Spears, choreographing her 2001 MTV Video Awards performance and the video for her hit single, ‘I’m a Slave 4 U’. Despite being diagnosed with MS in 2010, she has continued to enjoy an active lifestyle and, crucially, continue working.