Well, to be honest, you can. But as others will tell you, curses is the right tool for the job.
That said, this isn't the 80s anymore. <overgeneralization>Everybody uses Xterm.</overgeneralization> Xterm uses ANSI VT100 control codes, mimicking the classic DEC VT-100. If you target this, you should be reasonably ok and portable.
But curses is really nice. It does a lot of the hard work for you (and there's plenty of hard work left to keep you busy).