Cat Dancers

USA, 2007, 72 min

Directed By: Harris Fishman
Producers: Harris Fishman, Amanda Micheli
Executive Producers: Josh Braun, Julie Goldman, Krysanne Katsoolis, Caroline Stevens, Silas Weir Mitchell
Cinematographer: Amanda Micheli
Editor: Alexis Spraic
Music: String Theory, Peter Salett
Featuring: Ron Holiday, Joy Holiday, Chuck Lizza

In the 1950s, childhood friends Ron and Joy Holiday rose to fame as an internationally renowned adagio dance act. The couple’s routine reached its zenith during the 1960s at Radio City Music Hall, where they performed to great acclaim for many years. But their lives were changed forever when actor William Holden bequeathed them a black leopard, the first of several fierce wild cats they would incorporate into their performance. A complete novelty, they became known as “cat dancers,” prefiguring Las Vegas legends Siegfried and Roy.

Through the dream-like haze of archival footage, filmmaker Harris Fishman lures us into the intoxicating world of the Holidays, a bygone era of show business that thrived on glamorous costumes and exotic performances. In the present day we watch an elderly Ron don his wig, still dressing for life’s daily show, before setting the stage for a tragic love story populated by untamed hearts that broke societal rules. The scene? The Cat Dancers Ranch, created by the Holidays in Florida as an Edenic haven for love and acceptance, halfway between the bright lights of the theater and the wild jungle of their beautifully dangerous pets. There they were joined by a new, young trainer, who completed this unusual family. The exquisitely haunting tale that unfolds challenges both the boundaries of love and those that divide man and beast.
 - Jonathan Wysocki

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