Given the current state of the world, who couldn't use a little dancing? Everybody Dance Now, the latest edition of 2wice, is a portfolio of photographs by Martin Parr that capture the universal delight in getting down. Photographed over the past 35 years, the color-saturated pictures, including a few early black and white images, document the twisting, twirling, shimmying and shaking that take place in nightclubs, dance competitions, parades and celebrations from Blackpool to São Paolo.
The cover of Everybody Dance Now appears in metallic rainbow, reminiscent of a flamboyant party decoration—a fitting design for a photographer famed for his depictions of British working-class life. Page edges are coated in silver, and like the cover, are so reflective the reader can catch glimpses of himself in the surface. Inside, the layout continues the silver and rainbow theme as it references the postcards Parr is so well known for collecting.
“Photography is perhaps the most democratic form of human expression second only to dance,” remarks Parr in his accompanying essay and Everybody Dance Now, which exudes laughter, drunkenness, music and movement, is a testament to the universal nature of those expressions. Photography critic Andy Grundberg, who also contributed to the edition, adds: “What these photographs really seem to be about is twofold: first, the delights of photography in extremis, hyperactive and usually hyper-colored, and second, the irrepressible good-naturedness of humanity.”
