It was one of the first warm days last year, and Cat Janice and her son were bopping around in the car. Then the words popped into their heads.
“Dance until you love me,” they sang, over and over again.
They would goof around to that line frequently over the next few months, often while Janice drove. The words eventually became the basis for the latest — and possibly last — song from the D.C.-area alt-pop singer: At 31, Janice is in hospice with an aggressive form of cancer.
Facing the end of her life, Janice wanted to publish the song that began as a bonding moment with her 7-year-old and direct the single’s proceeds to him. She raced to release the music on Jan. 19, the day before her birthday.
“I did not even know if I was going to be alive when this song came out, at the time. So I just kind of did it, and now here we are,” said Janice, born Catherine Janice Ipsan. “And honestly, it’s a miracle.”
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The song, “Dance You Outta My Head,” has since soared to the top 10 tracks on iTunes and been used in more than 34,000 TikToks. The users sharing it range from young adults to people whose accounts identify themselves as “GramaCarolyn” and “Grandadjoe.” Several have posted in other languages, including French and Ukrainian, encouraging others to share the song in support. Even singer Jason Derulo commented on one of Janice’s videos that he was praying for her.
Many of the people sharing the single said they felt a personal connection to Janice’s story. For Sophie Soraya Hamidi, 18, her experience with lymphoma made her want to support a fellow cancer patient. She used the song in a TikTok that showed her getting bloodwork done.
“Listening to this song, ‘Dance You Outta My Head,’ is kind of a way for me to say, ‘I’m going to not think about this cancer,’” she said.
The song’s success has had a ripple effect. David Zierler, owner of the Las Vegas-based Handwritten Records, which worked with Janice on an album last year, said the hit has spurred people to discover more of her music.
“They’re not just listening to that one song,” he said. “They’re following her. They’re following the story.”
“I did not even know if I was going to be alive when this song came out, at the time. So I just kind of did it, and now here we are.”
— Cat JaniceJanice grew up in Annandale, the daughter of a former DJ who taught her children to love the Beatles and Pink Floyd. As a child, Janice played violin in a local orchestra and later spent hours writing songs.
Her brother, Will Ipsan, said she used to escape to her bedroom to tinker at the piano while the family was playing board games. When he eventually joined her upstairs, she would still be immersed in the music.
“There she is at her piano, playing some Lana Del Rey song, staring out the window,” said Ipsan, 27.
Janice was working as a geospatial information scientist and building her career as a singer when her life changed dramatically in 2022. An unusual lump in her neck turned out to be sarcoma, a rare cancer. She withdrew from her master’s program in coastal geology and limited her work hours while she made regular trips to New York City for treatment.
Seventeen rounds of chemotherapy later, doctors offered some much needed good news: Janice was cancer-free. Kyle Higginbotham, now her husband, said the couple bought a house in West Palm Beach, Fla., ready for a change.
That new chapter never came. The cancer roared back a few months later, and this time, it was in her lungs.
But Janice continued to make music, performing in shows and recording her aptly named album, “Modern Medicine.” She documented her experience with cancer on TikTok and Instagram, gaining followers who were there as much to support her through her illness as for her music.
In the fall, Janice entered a competition with the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers that paired her with the Tony Award-nominated songwriter Max Vernon. They spent the next few weeks on video calls, fleshing out the song that Janice and her son had begun to create — and ended up winning the contest.
By December, Janice’s health was deteriorating quickly. She and Higginbotham, who had gotten engaged in August at her album release party, decided to accelerate their plans to marry.
“We’re coming up on Christmas,” Higginbotham recalled, “and the conversations with the doctors just started to change from, ‘We think we can beat this thing,’ to, ‘It’s moving very fast.’”
They wed on Dec. 28 at the church where her parents had married years earlier — Janice adorned in a shimmery gold dress and crown. Although she had to remain seated during the ceremony, Higginbotham said she was able to summon enough strength to walk down the aisle.
Janice entered intensive care a few days later. Realizing she may not survive much longer, she decided to release a final track that would honor her connection with her son, Loren. A musically inclined child and a big fan of his mom’s songs, he often helps Janice with music videos and wanders into her home studio to offer his opinions.
Janice also wanted her final song to have a positive message. She had plenty of sad or sassy tracks in the vault, she said, but sharing those didn’t feel right. “Dance You Outta My Head,” by contrast, focuses on dancing until you forget someone you don’t want to think about.
“She just wanted everyone to dance and remember her in that way,” Ipsan said. “And remember her as someone who got you up off your feet, dancing — out of your mind and into your body.”
Janice usually spends a month or two preparing a song for release, but she knew she didn’t have that kind of time. She skipped working with her usual label and released the track independently.
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“Dance You Outta My Head” became public just before Janice’s birthday on Jan. 20, when friends and family surprised her with a party in her hospice space. Surrounded by glittering disco balls and gold balloons, Janice marveled at being alive.
“Truly,” she said, “I feel blessed by God to be able to have this moment with my son.”
The support from loved ones and fans has buoyed Janice during what may be her final days. When she woke up in the middle of the night one day to see her song taking off on iTunes, she screamed with excitement — prompting her friend to run into the room, thinking something was gravely wrong.
Janice is undergoing radiation, which her brother says has bought her some time, and the family is fundraising for her continued treatment.
But Janice knows this song may represent the end of her music career, and she hopes her legacy will be that she always stayed true to herself in her music and other creations.
“Any art that I’ve left behind, whether it’s pottery or painting or whatever, has just been an expression of myself and just been me,” she said. “Here’s me, you know?”
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