Evolution: Twirl

Marcus Irwin
Year Released: 2003

Categories: Floor Aerobics/Hi-Lo/Dance


To give a bit of background, I am an advanced exerciser who adores complex choreography. Christi Taylor, Patrick Goudeau, Seasun Z., and Rob Glick are all close, personal, workout buddies ( on my TV screen only, of course . . .SIGH ). I was recently introduced to Marcus, and it was love at 1st sight. :) If you are NOT a choreography lover, let me say right up front that Twirl is NOT the workout for you. But if you love everything the name of this workout implies: turns galore, along with lots of mambo, cha chas, and chasses, read on. Twirl is a 60 minute hi/lo workout that is part of the Evolution series. The set is very dark, as usual, with 4 monitors in the back with blue, swirling patterns on them throughout the workout. The music was stuff I had heard before on other workouts, but nothing I disliked. Unlike many of Marcus Irwin's workouts, this one includes a warmup and cooldown. There are 2 main sections within the body of the workout. There is a fair amount of taking it from the top, especially in the 1st half. There is less of it as we move on, but every time you finish a major block, you do go back to the very beginning. I happen to love that. If you have a low tolerance for it, you might find this frustrating. The really cool part ( to me ) is that at the very end we get to go through ALL of the choreography from the very beginning, twice on each side.

Within the workout itself, Marcus does his usual method of adding on counts by adding marches as place holders. He then adds the next move while you and the “background babes” are marching. While this can reduce the intensity of the workout, simply substituting jogging helps bring it up a notch. It's mixed impact, but unlike some of his other hi/lo, it would relatively easy to stick with a lower impact move he uses when building the block, without interrupting the flow of the choreography when everything starts getting put together. Noone demonstrates the lower impact version, so it would be up to the user to remember what to do when Marcus cues the final version of the move. Twirl is my number one favorite of Marcus's hi/lo, and perhaps my favorite of all of his workouts, which is odd, considering my favorite cardio is usually step. This workout is so much fun, though, that I may have to humbly admit that hi/lo can actually surpass step on a few ( rare ) occasions. :) The choreography really flows beautifully, especially when the turns get thrown in. Marcus is, as usual, a blast to workout with. He has a great energy with his background babes. He messes up at one point. They mess up occasionally. He laughes it off or calls it “doing their own version” of the move. He even said that some of his best choreography ideas come from people's “own versions” in his classes. His cuing is excellent! Even when brain freeze starts to set in, I can still keep up because his cues are right on. This is not a killer workout. It's an incredibly fun, moderate intensity workout that makes you WANT to give it your all because you're having such a good time!

The DVD version is beautifully chaptered, which makes it easy to do only what you want on any given day. I will warn you, however, that some of the chapter names don't really match up with what he calls the moves during the workout. For example: Chapter 7 is called “Boing!” on the chapter menu. In the workout, that move in its final version is called “Cheerleader.” So if you're looking for something in particular, you may have to think back to what was around it to figure out which chapter you want.

Instructor Comments:
Excellent cuing and a wonderful, friendly personality make Marcus one of the best instructors out there for lovers of complex choreography!

ErinF

01/15/2005