Alice Quaresma, a dancer and singer, was born in Barbados where she grew up with her two sisters. At the age of twelve, she began a dancing career that lasted for twenty years, which included working with such notable people as Frank Sinatra. At the age of nineteen, Alice started to focus more on singing, writing and performing. A personal letter written by Alice to her half-brother, John King, reveals her confusion at this point about her future: “I am very confused about my occupation. I always thought that my life’s mission would be to sing, but now I suppose I must do something else – perhaps become a teacher.”
The next stage of Alice’s career was more focused on performing. She appeared in a number of different shows and songs, all of which helped her to gain international recognition. Finally, after much soul searching, Alice decided to pursue her artistic career and pursued it at the University of Miami, studying drama. One of her first impressions of the University was that it was “very big – very large.” It is clear from this experience that Alice’s vision was to achieve stardom and identity by being a height model.
After graduating, Alice went to work for Universal Studios and worked in their department of performing arts; one of her tasks was to direct “Million Dollar Baby” as well as choreographed music videos for numerous movies and music bands. By this time she had already established her own name and reputation as an artist. She also gained notice from Richard Simmons who was looking for a replacement for him on his syndicated radio show, “The Richard Simmons Show.” Alice’s inclusion on “The Richard Simmons Show” dramatically increased her popularity and, later that decade, she began to receive critical acclaim for her work which would influence such notable people as: Bob Dylan, Yusef Islam and Luther Vandross.