Mayte Garcia

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Mayte Jannell Garcia (born 12 November 1973), better known as simply Mayte is a dancer and singer, best known as the former wife of pop-star, Prince. Born on a military base in Alabama, Garcia's parents (who are of Puerto Rican ancestry) relocated throughout the United States and Germany as a result of her father's military reassignments.

Mayte appeared on the American television program That's Incredible! at the age of 8 as the world's youngest professional belly dancer. She graduated from Wiesbaden American High School in Wiesbaden, Germany. This is the same high school that Priscilla Presley attended while dating Elvis.

1 Working with Prince
2 Marriage, child and annulment
3 Recent activities
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Working with Prince

Mayte first came to the attention of Prince in 1990 when her mother, Nell submitted a video cassette of Mayte's performance. Prince met the young dancer during the same year while on tour in Germany and eventually she was hired to dance in his Diamonds and Pearls tour. Her role was soon elevated as she became the focus of his next album, Love Symbol, and assumed the guise of an Egyptian princess for the concept album and 3 Chains of Gold video compilation^[1].

When Prince slimmed down the New Power Generation and changed his stage name to an unpronounceable symbol, Mayte revealed to fans her Puerto Rican heritage, remained in the NPG as a dancer, and often provided English and Spanish vocals on his albums.

In 1995, Prince produced an album for Mayte entitled Child of the Sun for a European release on his NPG Records label. Singles for the album included "If I Love U 2 Night". There is a rare album version called Mayte Princess including studio outtakes and the official songs^[2], and other compilations include hidden tracks On The Beach^[3] and This Is Me.

In 1997^[4] she was the artistic director of the New Power Generation Dance Company^[5] in the Around The World In A Day tour^[6]. But due to lack of funds the initiative didn't succeed ^[7].

She also directed The One videoclip for her husband at that time^[8] and for other artists like Chaka Khan, Graham Central Station^[9].

[edit] Marriage, child and annulment

Rumors that Prince and Mayte were an item were confirmed when they announced their engagement not long after her album was released. They were married on Valentine's Day, 1996. Prince's 3-CD opus, Emancipation was largely dedicated to their union and their then-unborn child. The child, rumored to have been named Gregory, was born with Pfeiffer syndrome, a rare skull disease and died shortly after birth. The marriage was eventually annulled in 1999. Mayte received a house in Spain as a settlement. She was also linked to entertainment phenom Wade Robson

In 2001 Mayte was briefly engaged to musician Tommy Lee.

[edit] Recent activities

She taught belly dancing to Britney Spears, that she danced on her music video "Slave 4 U" and her performance at the MTV Video Music Awards^[10].

Garcia guest starred on the USA Network show "Psych" and TNT show "The Closer," and has appeared as a guest star on the hit shows "Las Vegas (TV series)" and "Nip/Tuck", as well as the films "Firehouse Dog", Charlie Wilson's War, and the independent film EGO, to be directed by Antonio Macia.

She starred on Si TV's program "Across The Hall" with Eric Cubiche^[11].

She was recently filmed as a dancer in the Hindi film Dus for the song Deedar De Deedar De.

31-year-old Mayte was seen gyrating in a number called Deedaar De from producer Nitin Manmohans film Dus . The song is sung Sunidhi Chauhan and composed by Vishal-Shekhar.

The idea for shooting the number on Mayte came from LA-based choreographer Liz Imperio.

Nitin says that he was looking for a girl with a hint of Latin American looks for the song in the film. He adds that Mayte fitted the bill perfectly because she has "a mix of Latin American and Indian looks."

She has recently been seen in a recurring role as a reporter on the ABC television series "Big Shots".