LaMorte was born in the New York City borough of Queens and grew up in several locations including the Florida Keys and Ocean City, Maryland. She is named after her father, Robert LaMorte. After being inspired by the 1983 movie Flashdance, she began dancing and taking after-school lessons in jazz dance, ballet, and tap dance. She attended the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts as a dance major during the school's first year of operation, and then received a full scholarship to the Dupree Dance Academy in Hollywood. At sixteen, she began working as a backup Dancer in music videos, first appearing in Debbie Gibson's "Shake Your Love".
After having appeared in more than thirty music videos and toured in a six-dancer troupe with the Pet Shop Boys, LaMorte was picked by the musician Prince to be one of two lead Dancers for the music video for "Cream", a single from his 1991 album Diamonds and Pearls. Prince had originally sought identical twins, but chose LaMorte along with another Dancer, Lori Elle, because of their similar appearance and the dance chemistry they had with Prince. Elle as "Diamond" and LaMorte as "Pearl" subsequently appeared in the videos for "Cream", "Gett Off", "Strollin'", and the album's title track, as well as on the album's holographic cover itself. LaMorte then toured Europe with Prince, and when he temporarily refused to do any public speaking, she and Elle served as his Spokespersons and conducted the main promotional efforts for Diamonds and Pearls.
