Parr's "Everybody Dance Now"

British photographer Martin Parr's large-format paperback of shots of folks dancing--Everybody Dance Now (editions2wice, 2009)--comes wrapped in a dazzling foil rainbow. It's that kind of book: brash and dizzying photos of party people, from around the globe and in a variety of informal and formal settings (with the interesting omission of street dance), doing their thing.

At first glance, the practical Virgo in me thought, "Okay, what's the need for this?" But the more I flipped through it--the best way to take it in--the more I found myself getting into the spirit of the thing.

In their introductory note, editor Patsy Tarr and graphic designer Abbott Miller contest that "dancing allows people to simultaneously become truer to who they really are, but also to try on an exaggerated version of themselves: cooler, hotter, groovier, sexier." But, as I see it, that "exaggerated version" is actually a strong aspect of the truer self. Social dancing helps us strip off the masks and shields that hide us from others and blind us to ourselves as well.

There are some shots of self-conscious and highly-stylized ballroom dancers in action or waiting their turn, and a few glimpses of Highland dancers at the ready but, by and large, this book attends to dance in its sweatier, goofier and often booze-propelled forms. Parr documents release of human energy, the human spirit at play.

2wice Arts Foundation is the publisher of rather glamourous dance books--False Start: Jonah Bokaer and Green World: Merce Cunningham, among other quality "performances-in-print." You can find out more about these and Parr's Everybody Dance Now at 2wice's site and place orders there or through Amazon.com.