Tate McRae was born on July 1, 2003, in the Canadian city of Calgary, Alberta. When her father’s career took him to the Middle East, the whole family moved to Oman when she was around 4 years old. “We lived there for three years and I got to explore Oman, as well as many places around there,” McRae recalled in an interview with the Chicago Tribune. “We went to Dubai in the UAE, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, [and] Egypt and then explored a lot of countries in Europe.”
Living in a foreign country during such a formative stage in her life left her with a far more expansive perspective on life than she might have held otherwise. As she told the Tribune, her unique childhood, and all the places she visited at such a young age, had given her an open-mindedness about new experiences and unfamiliar cultures. “Cultures are all so diverse and different and you can learn so much from the people,” she explained.
While living in Oman, McRae’s mother taught dance classes. As a result, the youngster couldn’t help but become immersed in the world of movement as a child and would often improvise dances she created herself. After three years abroad, she and her family returned to Canada.
