Mayte Mateos graduated as a teacher from the Royal Spanish Academy for Arts, Drama and Dance in Madrid and then joined Spanish television's ballet company. While there she met fellow performer María Mendiola. In 1976 the two women formed a singing and dancing duo (using the title "Venus") and left the ballet company. Initially the duo's act was simply that of variety show dancers. Their first television appearance was on the "Palmarés" light entertainment programme and they were engaged at a nightclub in the Aragon city of Zaragoza, but their contract was cancelled when the club manager decided that they were "too elegant" for the style of show. Mateos and Mendiola relocated to the Canary Islands in search of work. Here they found that there was an audience for the performance of traditional Spanish music and dance in a form that was adapted to suit international tastes.