We recently connected with Cuic Suarez and have shared our conversation below.

Cuic, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I am happy to say that I have given joy and inspiration to people through the world of Dance. This is how I believe, or at least how I hope I will be remembered. Throughout the years I have been shown by so many how their lives have been greatly affected by what I do, and because of this, I have inspired, I have touched, and I have made a difference in people’s hearts and souls in so many ways.

This is how I feel I have built a legacy.

Please, allow me to share one of the many testimonials I have received.

MEET MARY CLARKE
“Picture this – 1950, my local YMCA offers ballet classes to children of color. I’m seven years old and happened to be one of the students. I immediately fell in love with the art. The Y was able to get a Teacher to teach these classes which was not a small feat in that time because of segregation. I couldn’t wait to get to classes. However, one day, my mother and father sat me down and explained I couldn’t continue classes because there was no future in it. I was heartbroken. They advised the Teacher I wouldn’t be continuing. She tried her best to convince them otherwise. She saw potential. It didn’t work. Unfortunately, it wouldn’t make a difference because my Teacher got threatened with closing her studio down and even getting arrested if she continued teaching children of color.

I never lost my love for ballet. I’ve been dancing over the years and even took a few ballet classes after I became an adult. Ballet has always been my love.

I really appreciate your classes and just wanted to take a moment to say, thank you Cuic Suarez”.

-Mary Clarke-

Cuic, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

– HOW I GOT INTO MY INDUSTRY – I became involved with Dance at the age of thirteen when I took my first dance class. My sole purpose in entering that class was to meet a girl I liked. You see, I thought that my only chance with her was to get into her world and maybe this way impress her. That was my strategy. I was willing to do anything to get her attention and to talk to her. I this even after my friends and teammates from my water polo team bullied me when they found out I was taking dance classes. This made me a clear and present danger to them.

Unfortunately, I never got the girl. She never acknowledged my existence, or maybe she never even became aware of it.
However, something did happen. Something different was beginning to awaken inside of me. I was beginning to realize that I actually did like to dance. I was now going to my dance classes willingly and out of my own conviction, and not because of her anymore. In fact, she quit Dance not long after I started taking those dance classes. I don’t know if my presence had anything to do with it, but I did not care if this was the case, I was falling in love with Dance. It was because of the way it made me feel. It was because I was someone else, maybe something else when I danced and because the world disappeared when I danced.
When I took that first dance class little did I know that it would affect the rest of my life. It made me a Dancer forever and thus, it became my life.

– WHAT PROBLEMS FOREVER DANCER SOLVES –
Dancing can Improve our overall health. As we age the importance and need to be active and to keep our mental wellness becomes more than essential.
Research has shown that dancing promotes wellness by strengthening the immune system, conditioning individuals to control disabling conditions, boosting cardiovascular health and bone strength, improving balance and flexibility, as well as regenerating brain cells. Dancing has also been shown to promote a feeling of euphoria that helps people deal with the emotional effects of illness, disability, aging, or trauma.
Forever Dancer provides this opportunity for adults to dance. There aren’t many opportunities for middle aged adults to become involved in Dance since normally dance classes are a youth oriented activity..
Forever Dancer is for everyone regardless of age, culture, or profession. There is no need to have any dance experience, It encompasses everyone. Our events and dance classes create a sense of community where our Forever Dancers experience memorable moments of connection, expression and friendship, where they come to learn, laugh, and exist differently. Once they participate and discover what we do, they feel inspired, humbled, and even transcendent.

Therefore, a concept such as our FOREVER DANCER world is definitely important to staying active and living a better life.

Please, allow me to share one more testimonial

MEET SALLY SHARPE
I continued to dance during my cancer treatments because dance helps me physically and psychologically. The Forever Dancer dance classes help me de-stress, stay motivated, work out physical discomforts and generally achieve a sense of joy and well being.

– Sally Sharpe –

FOREVER DANCER exists for I do believe that everyone loves to dance and carries a Dancer within..

“We do not stop dancing because we grow old. We grow old because we stop dancing”.

– WHAT I THINK SETS FOREVER DANCER APART FROM OTHERS –
FOREVER DANCER transforms, lifts the spirit, nourishes the soul, and leads to the discovery of new pathways to wellness.

Through FOREVER DANCER we have created an adult performing dance group named; The Forever Dancers. This has given our devotees an opportunity to perform and even maybe, to achieve a dream they could not realize when they were young.

This group was born out of the fire of the early autumn days of its members. The troupe is a testimonial that Dance is timeless, infinite…forever; and that Dance exists within us all.

The Forever Dancers performing group exists to share our love for Dance spreading our mission of unity, respect and understanding.

This is what sets us apart from others. FOREVER DANCER is more than a brand that offers products and services. FOREVER DANCER offers a space where people come to connect, to learn, to be themselves. FOREVER DANCER is a lifestyle, a community of like-minded people where they experience connection, expression and friendship.
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– WHAT AM I MOST PROUD OF –
I am proud to have created a brand out of my devotion, from what once was my first dance class, and then became my life’. I am proud for my resilience and creativity that have converted an idea into a beautiful reality.
This, has motivated me to work on new projects one of them being the writing of my story ,which will be named,
FOREVER DANCER. This is an endeavor I am planning to finish before the end of this year.

I am also very proud of my other new project which is coming into existence after working on it for the past two years, my very own Mezcal brand. This is my product derived from the agave plant with only organic and sustainable methods, and which will carry the name, Señor Suárez ,in honor of both, my deceased Dad and my Mom.

If I am to mention what I am the most proud of, I will say that it is the day I became a man. It is the day my son was born and I witnessed his birth. It is that moment when I held him in my arms for the first time and knew I was his Dad.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

FOREVER DANCERIt was September 21st 1986. I was only twenty three years old when I arrived at Chicago”s O”Hare International airport sometime close to midnight. Two “empresarios” from the Windy City had offered me a contract while visiting Mexico City earlier that same year and after attending one of my performances with Ballet Folklorico de Mexico. The invitation was to appear as a “Guest Artist” in a newly produced musical review of Mexican culture. My commitment was to perform in this production for a period of two months, though my excitement was infinite. This epitomized my first time representing myself without being a member of a dance company so, with a world of dreams in my eyes, alone, and with only fifty dollars in my pocket, I embarked on this new adventure to Chicago ready to fulfill the contract I had signed. I was oblivious, completely unaware, that my life was about to forever change. That my path was about to take a wild and what seemed to be a never-ending downhill turn.

Almost as soon after I was picked up at the airport another world of complications followed my arrival. Things did not seem right. The contract specified that upon my arrival I would receive my first installment of payment of the amount of money agreed. And it also said that I would be housed in a fully furnished apartment during my entire stay.
But none of this happened. I did not receive any amount of money after my arrival and instead, I was taken to an empty basement of an old house located in the middle of a not very safe neighborhood in the southwest of Chicago. The basement was a desolate space with only a mattress on the floor as furniture and nothing else. There was also a small bathroom in one of the corners as the special feature of that empty place.
Was this a prank being played on me? My confusion was tangible, but I resolved to go along with the moment. I had no intentions to question or to be difficult on my first night of my first exclusive endeavor. It was already way past midnight and I was exhausted. “Everything will be different tomorrow and as accorded in my contract”, I thought. “I will receive my first payment tomorrow and it will all be well”, I said to myself.

The days went by, and so then the weeks, and a couple of months. The fifty dollars I owned were long gone and spent on my first meals the two following days after my arrival. I was still living in that basement and I still had not received any form of payment.
I was now existing in a new surreal reality. Inexplicably and unexplainable, and somehow dark.
In spite of it all I was completely complying with what I had committed in the contract. “You always honor your word because that is everything you own” I remembered these words from my Dad from the time when I was a kid.
One part of such a contract also specified that I would commit to teach Mexican folkloric dances to a group of teenagers of Mexican descent. Something I did everyday hoping that at some point I would be compensated. Needless to say this never happened, let alone the “new and spectacular musical production” where I was to be the “Featured Special Guest”.

The dream I had and the new life I came to find in the U.S. was becoming a nightmare. Without money, without friends, without my family, and without any knowledge of the English language, the silence around me was deafening.
A solution to this new life I owned was to go back to Mexico only and to my misfortune I did not own any money to pay for an airplane ticket. Calling my parents for help was out of the question. I did not want to worry them. Plus every time I was able to call them I would say to them that everything was going wonderfully.
I also had too much pride. This stubborn pride of mine. Back home, I had told everyone that I was going to Chicago to be featured in this “New Musical Production”. I said to everyone I could that I was a star in the making. So I refused to go back with my tail between my legs though I ignored this meant I’d have to pay a hefty price.

Somehow I had managed to find a way to teach some dance classes for kids in “La Villita”, the Mexican hood of Chicago. This gave me an opportunity to earn some money, (about fifty dollars a week). Now, I could afford a daily meal which consisted of two hot dogs at a joint I had found one block away from “my basement”. The owner of that place ran a special of two hot dogs with fries and a soda for $4.99. I ate one hot dog in the morning and saved the other one for my dinner.
With some of that money I also would pay for my jazz dance class, or ballet classes at a dance studio I accidentally had found one day while wandering around downtown Chicago.
This moment, the day I luckily walked in front of this building and read on the directory board by the door “Lou Conte Dance Studio”, was defining in the ordeal my life had become. I did not speak any English at all but I did not need to have a Bachelor of Science in English to understand the words “Dance Studio”. My steps walked me into that building and towards the elevator. I pressed the button once inside the elevator to take me to the floor where the dance studios were located. When the elevator doors opened I saw Dancers walking around in their dance attires. Dancers walking in that unique way that only Dancers walk. Dancers walking to their dance classes in that particular way of walking that only Dancers have. It’s almost a different language. What a different world that one was. These were the kind of Dancers I remember seeing back home in TV series like “Fame”.

Timidly, I walked into an area where I could appreciate three or four dance studios around me. One lady sitting at a desk involved in a conversation with two Dancers politely asked me, “Hello, may I help you?”. With my much less than broken English and with some of the very few words that I knew, I answered with my voice shaking; “Uhm…Uhm…Watch?…Watch?…
I can?…I can?. Yes?”; while pointing at both of my eyes and then to the dance studios.
They looked at each other a little confused. One of those two Dancers, realizing that I did not speak the language, replied; “Sure. Come. – Camina con me”. Moving his hand he was asking me to follow him to guide me to one of the dance studios. There was a Jazz Dance class in progress and I was able to pick into the class from the studio”s door and what I saw, what I witnessed was simply mesmerizing.

I was in awe. It was fascinating. This was almost ethereal. I saw human gazelles drawing poetry with the movement of their bodies. Pure beatitude. Those Dancers seemed like floating angels soaring to the keys of the music. I was simply speechless. I could not take my eyes off those Dancers. I stared at them, and I stared, and I stared. One Dancer first, then another Dancer, then another one. My eyes could not satiate enough. It was completely captivating.
I don’t remember how long I stayed contemplating that Dance class idolizing those Dancers. I don’t know when I walked out of those studios, or out of the elevator, and then out of that building. I simply don’t remember. I only remember that at some point I became aware that I was again walking wandering the streets of downtown Chicago.
But I seemed to have seen the light of a fallinging star. That rapid light you see when you see a shooting star. Now I knew that if I was going to stay in Chicago, I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to immerse myself in that world. I wanted to be a Dancer like those Dancers. I wanted to be one of them. I now felt inspired.

Back in “my basement”, in a conversation with myself I resolved that if I wanted to change the way things were happening I had to get out of that place, I had to walk away from that environment around me, from everything my life had become. Though this was not such an easy thing to do.
Where would I go? I knew nobody. This would have to take some time. While I figured how to resolve that small aspect I would have to continue teaching the dance classes I committed to in that contract in the meantime. It guaranteed me a place to sleep, “my lovely basement”.

Plus, I could feel that winter was arriving. The cold was becoming more intense day by day and as the nights were becoming longer. I had never experienced that kind of cold before. The worst part was that winter had not even arrived yet.
I did not own any piece of clothing for that type of weather. The only snow I had seen before was in movies. Leaving my basement during this time would not be a smart thing to do at least, I had heat in it.
I stuck to the schedule that I had organized under my circumstances.
I continued to teach the classes under my contract and also continued with the classes for the kids that were paying the little bit of money I was earning. I was able to do my dance classes visiting a few different dance studios around Chicago. When I didn’t have enough money for transportation I’d walk in the freezing cold to go to my classes wearing every layer of clothing I had around me. The cold was brutal. Every few blocks it was necessary to stop and walk inside any business along the way to warm myself up to continue my course. But nothing would stop me, I had to get to my dance classes. This was my only way to forget about my reality. Everyday I attended as many classes as I could from Monday thru Saturday, from 10am until 7 or 8pm. I was fortunate though. At one point I received a scholarship in one of these studios. This meant that I would not have to pay for classes anymore in exchange for cleaning the mirrors of the dance studio, sweeping the floors and keeping the place tiddy. I did this happily. It was something else to occupy my mind.

Seven months went by when May arrived and the weather became warmer. I grabbed what little I owned and waived ‘my basement’ goodbye. I walked away from it, I left it behind and the people that had offered that contract. I was on my own now. But I felt that if I wanted to change my reality I would have to jump off a cliff even if this represented that my existence would likely have to get worse before it got any better. I had to take the risk hoping I could solve things and my world as soon as I could.

And so it all did get worse. The very little money I had saved only could afford me three nights in a hotel. After that, I could not say that I had a roof to sleep under. What now? I could not believe that my life had been reduced to what it was the only option I could think of. I found myself having to sleep on a bench of one of the parks of the city of Chicago..
What happened? How did I get here? Only one year earlier I was touring China with Ballet Folklorico de Mexico and had been asked to perform for the Premier Minister of China during a special performance in his honor. My life was now diminished to how I was going to feed myself. How I would shower and how Iwas going to go on. I was in an emergency survival mode. The pure expression and meaning of resilience.

How I did this is difficult to talk about. There are still tears when I think about it. Something inside still hurts, deeply. The fears, the doubts, the impotence, and my solitude were my only company. Somehow though, also deep inside there was hope. I had hope. Hope that this darkness would eventually begin to dissipate.

Many more details of this story I have not included here. Many more moments and many more situations. Most of them are bitter ones in fact. A couple of them are sweet ones. But this is the essence of the story I lived in my early months and years in the U.S. of A. The story and the moments that defined me to who I am now, of how it happened and how I lived these very challenging times of survival. Pure resilience.

But it was Dance that saved me. It meant my safe haven, comforted me through this ordeal. I know that had it not been for Dance I would not have made it through. Because of Dance I could forget my reality, I could make the world disappear.
I would go to as many dance classes as I possibly could for they simply were the oxygen I breathe to me. Out of that inspiration I felt with Dance I worked and worked, and pushed myself tirelessly to the extremes and in those dance classes. I felt happy then.
After many months, after one hundred dance classes or even more, and when I felt I was somehow ready as a Dancer, I started auditioning for anything and anyone I could. One day, I had the opportunity to audition for the most fantastic Dance Company in Chicago which had some of the finest Dancers in the city. The Joseph Holmes Chicago Dance Theatre. It was the summer of 1988. To my unfathomable surprise after the audition I was invited to join the company. I was offered a contract but this time it was a real contract. It was then, that for the first time and two years later after arriving in Chicago I saw a light. A light had just been turned on to illuminate my life. I left the dance studios and cried and cried walking alone with no one around me to celebrate. But I felt happy. I was happy.

This event gave me the opportunity to perform around the U.S. as well as abroad, fortunately receiving great reviews. It gave me the honor to work with two Dance legends, two Dance luminaries of Chicago and of the world of Dance in general -. Harriet Ross and Randy Duncan. My mentors, my saviours, and to whom I will be forever grateful. They gave me an opportunity when the fire inside of me was extinguishing. They gave me hope again. I was embraced by them and by those fabulous Dancers I danced with.They nurtured me, they guided me, they coached me. They were patient with me even when I didn’t deserve it. And for that reason and for everything they did for me during those extreme rough times, I am and forever will be grateful.

I will also be forever grateful to Homer Bryant, Nan Giordano, Larry Long, Joel Hall, Maria Tallchief and Marjorie Tallchief for their teachings and inspiration every minute of every day of every class I took from them.

Dance Saved Me. I own everything I am to Dance. Dance is my element. It is who I am and what I am, and It is how I best express myself. Dance gave me a purpose and a dream to dream again.
I am a Dancer forever.
I am a FOREVER DANCER.

Everything in the Universe has Movement,
Everything Dances..

Does your business have multiple or supplementary revenue streams (like a ATM machine at a barbershop, etc)?

FOREVER DANCER offers products and services that generate various streams of income. The brand provides a line of fashion which includes clothing, jewelry, travel gear, as well as our live events that are open to like-minded devotees such as,, Dance Seminars, Dance Workshops, and Dance/Cultural Retreats,. All of this with and under the Forever Dancer logo. and brand.

I like to believe that Forever Dancer is a lifestyle, a way to connect our community to inspire and transcend.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.foreverdancer.com
• Instagram: foreverdancer_tm
• Facebook: Facebook.com/Foreverdancers
• Youtube: Forever Dancer @foreverdancer1