Mary Cuffy

Every young artist dreams of tak­ing the stage, lights, mu­sic, and ap­plause. For most chil­dren, this dream is lim­it­ed on­ly by imag­i­na­tion and op­por­tu­ni­ty. For Kay­ley Da Cos­ta, the jour­ney to the stage re­quired some­thing more: an ex­tra­or­di­nary fight against her own body.

Kay­ley is a ris­ing star in Trinidad and To­ba­go’s per­form­ing arts scene. She has trained in jazz, bal­let, folk, and con­tem­po­rary dance, per­form­ing on some of the coun­try’s most cel­e­brat­ed stages through her work at Lil­liput Chil­dren’s The­atre. Her orig­i­nal so­lo piece, “Fu­sion of the Isle”, show­cased a ma­tur­ing chore­o­graph­ic voice and a deep con­nec­tion to Caribbean per­for­mance tra­di­tions.

She was re­cent­ly award­ed a full schol­ar­ship to at­tend New Waves 2025, an in­ten­sive dance and per­for­mance train­ing pro­gramme pre­sent­ed by The Dance & Per­for­mance In­sti­tute in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. Among the youngest in her co­hort, Kay­ley dis­tin­guished her­self through her com­mit­ment, fo­cus, and artis­tic pres­ence through­out the pro­gramme. But be­hind the cur­tain and the spot­light lies a sto­ry that very few see.

A Di­ag­no­sis at Five

Myas­the­nia Gravis (MG) is a rare au­toim­mune con­di­tion that caus­es weak­ness in the vol­un­tary mus­cles of the body. Every­day ac­tiv­i­ties that many take for grant­ed, walk­ing, climb­ing stairs, speak­ing, swal­low­ing, and even smil­ing, can be­come chal­leng­ing for those liv­ing with MG. At just five years old, Kay­ley Da Cos­ta re­ceived this di­ag­no­sis. “It was scary,” re­calls Kay­ley’s moth­er. “We didn’t know what the fu­ture would hold. Would she be able to dance? Would she be able to live a nor­mal life?” The con­di­tion brought many un­cer­tain­ties. There were mo­ments of fear, hos­pi­tal vis­its, and ques­tions about what was pos­si­ble. But from the be­gin­ning, Kay­ley showed a spir­it that be­lied her young age.

De­spite her di­ag­no­sis, Kay­ley nev­er stopped danc­ing. “I didn’t want to stop,” Kay­ley says. “Dance is my hap­py place. When I’m on stage, I for­get about every­thing else.” Her jour­ney has re­quired strict dis­ci­pline. Prop­er nu­tri­tion, ad­e­quate rest, and faith­ful­ly tak­ing her pre­scribed med­ica­tions are non-ne­go­tiable parts of her dai­ly rou­tine. These treat­ments help man­age her symp­toms and al­low her to re­main ac­tive in the ac­tiv­i­ties she loves.

Through it all, Kay­ley has been sup­port­ed by her fam­i­ly, doc­tors, teach­ers, and friends, a vil­lage that has stood be­side her every step of the way.

An In­spi­ra­tion

to Oth­ers

June is Myas­the­nia Gravis Aware­ness Month, and Kay­ley has a mes­sage for oth­ers liv­ing with chron­ic ill­ness­es: “Don’t let your con­di­tion de­fine you. You are stronger than you think. Keep chas­ing your dreams, no mat­ter what ob­sta­cles you face.” Her sto­ry is a tes­ta­ment to courage, re­silience, and the pow­er of nev­er giv­ing up. Look­ing to the fu­ture, Kay­ley dreams of achiev­ing re­mis­sion so she can con­tin­ue liv­ing a healthy, ful­fill­ing life, one where she can dance, act, and in­spire oth­ers with­out the lim­i­ta­tions her con­di­tion some­times im­pos­es. “Chal­lenges can be trans­formed in­to op­por­tu­ni­ties for growth and suc­cess,” she says. “With faith, de­ter­mi­na­tion, and sup­port, any­thing is pos­si­ble.”

From the stages of Lil­liput Chil­dren’s The­atre to the pres­ti­gious plat­forms of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s per­form­ing arts com­mu­ni­ty, Kay­ley Da Cos­ta is prov­ing every day that the hu­man spir­it can­not be mea­sured by med­ical charts or di­ag­noses. She rep­re­sents ex­act­ly the kind of young artist pro­grammes like New Waves were de­signed to sup­port: dis­ci­plined, cu­ri­ous, col­lab­o­ra­tive, and un­re­pen­tant­ly am­bi­tious. And as June brings at­ten­tion to Myas­the­nia Gravis aware­ness, Kay­ley’s jour­ney shines as a bea­con of hope: a re­minder that even the most chal­leng­ing cir­cum­stances can be trans­formed in­to ex­tra­or­di­nary achieve­ments through per­se­ver­ance and pas­sion.

The stage is hers. And the sto­ry is just be­gin­ning.

Mary Cuffy is an ed­u­ca­tor and lo­cal chil­dren's au­thor of the La­dy­bug se­ries. Cuffy be­lieves the best in­vest­ment we can make in chil­dren is in the ear­ly years.

Email mary.cuff@ya­hoo.com . IG:marycuffy . FB: mary cuffy/Lo­la and the Danc­ing La­dy­bug