Non Stop Step

Marcos Prolo

Categories: Step Aerobics



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I am an intermediate to advanced cardio exerciser, depending on how much effort I want to put into the workout that day. My favorite step workouts are by instructors like Christi Taylor, Andre Houle, and Kari Anderson.

This is a step tape by Marcos Prolo, a Sara City production. The set is very basic, a workout studio, and he leads the workout with two background exercisers. I recognized the music from somewhere – maybe one of the CIA workouts I’ve done? It’s your standard workout music mix.

Marcos breaks down complex choreography really well and before you know it, you are doing more complex steps than you may have thought you could. His goal in this workout is to do all the steps without taps and he includes some interesting and fun combinations.

However, in the end, I did not end up keeping this workout, the main reason being the camera work. They kept showing tight camera shots on Marcos’ feet or face or one of the background exercisers when I really needed them to show the wide shot to see what was going on. I am a visual learner and they kept taking away the visual of what he was teaching. If not for that, I would have enthusiastically kept this workout.

Instructor Comments:
He is a fantastic cuer and is very effective at breaking down complex choreography into learnable chunks.

Laura S.

10/25/2004

Marcos Prolo's step tape Nonstop Step and tried it for the first time today. It's Marcos and two female backup exercisers in a gym setting. The warm up is good, the first combo goes along fine, the choreo is fun, new but not too complex and I'm clicking along well when wham! Suddenly the camera man decides he's bored or something and decides to get creative. Someone wrestle the camera away from that camera man! So as Marcos is teaching brand new steps the camera man goes to a funky side angle that cuts off their feet! And then he spends a lot of time on upper body shots of Marcos' very attractive back up exercizers as Marcos teaches even more steps. The whole second and third combos are nearly unlearnable because you almost never get to see the whole thing from a basic front angle. Good thing his cueing is excellent or there would be no hope for this vid whatsoever. But the camera man made me stop numerous times in total frustration because I had no clue what it was that he was doing because everyone's feet were cut off for the entire teaching section. Ack! Don't you think this would be rule number one for step video with (relatively) complex choreography?

Oh how I long to see this entire workout from the front! It seems like an excellent workout. Someone introduce Marcos to Greg Twombly please! I don't even care if it's shot on the red dead cow background, just keep the camera in the right place!

The background exercisers were very well rehearsed, the plain gym workout room was ok but would have been better without the mirrors. The music was fine and has been used in other tapes.

Instructor Comments:
Marcos reminds me of a somewhat less animated verion Andre Houle in his choreography and the way he talks and cues. His cueing is excellent!

Anne V

04/21/2002

"Fun" is the first word that comes to mind. You get 43 minutes of complex choreography that will challenge your mind as well as your step skills. But don't worry, it's not TOO mind-challenging. Marcos breaks things down quickly and keeps adding on -- he's faster about that than most other instructors, including Christi Taylor. But while you may have to use your brain a little more to follow him, he instructs very well -- so even if you get a little lost, as I do, you can "get it" pretty fast, without having to rewind. He teaches three different combos, and you only put them together one time at the very end. I would have liked another run-through. I'm not quite ready to quit yet when we reach the end.

This is a great workout that I think Christi and maybe G-Force fans would like, but there is one annoying thing about it. The camera man/woman has quite obviously never done a video workout because he/she points the camera anywhere except where it should be several times. Now, this is not a major problem in this case, but it's definitely annoying and needs improvement. Maybe next time Marcos will shoot with Greg Twombley -- whatever he decides to do, I'm sure I'll be buying it. Grade A.

Annie S.

08/18/2001