Shortly after the ball dropped on New Year’s Eve, we decided to dive deep into Return to Life and find a way to organize Joe’s information into a useful format, to help understand what this book was really trying to communicate. Sounds simple, but after spending a few weeks with it, we understood what we were learning was more useful than a study guide or training manual. Embarrassed to be categorized as a “Pilates” teacher because of all the nonsense happening on social media, we debated whether to start using Contrology in our advertising / name. As a studio and with the support of our clients, we decided to join in the social media game. The first post to kick it off was on February 18th, 2018. This post and those that followed started off a revolution of sorts regarding Contrology and Return to Life. FaceBook alone has never seen the word Contrology so much as it has in 2018.

This post was not to advertise a workshop but to make a statement on where we stood as a studio, clients and all. The posts that followed were along these lines and the goal was to get teachers to start to think for themselves and at the same time, educate. This is how it all began. As time went on, we decided we needed to share this information with others because it has changed the way we approach and teach Pilates. In addition, it took away all the opinions and layers added by others and revealed a body of work that is often misunderstood, not because of the system, but rather because of the interpretations. Return to Life has all the instructions we need. That is when we set a workshop date for April 2019. We did not rush into holding it in 2018 because we wanted to spend more time with it and make sure we had results from our continued teachings, practicing and clients.

The date for the workshop is quickly approaching and we have continued to answer all of your messaged questions. Now is the time to send out some FAQS. We want to make sure you understand this project is different and not a workshop that will simply go over the exercises in the book and point out the obvious differences to what is practiced. This is beyond deep. It is like a story that all comes together and has a defined end, truly a waltz.

Who is involved with Project Return?   It is the brain child of Dana Santi, Jeni Jones and Maureen Strom. The three of us work together side by side at Dana Santi Pilates. We are three trained teachers with no extra credentials that love to think, challenge and debate with each other. Our environment is one of discovery, experimentation and learning. Our clients walk away with a feeling of control and in awe of the perfect design of the human body.

Why Return to Life? First, it is a book that is easily accessed by everyone. It is affordable and something you can always carry with you. Second, it is a written document that is pure and written in Joe’s voice. The body is Joe’s. The words are Joe’s. There can be no debate on if the body was this type or another. It is his! These exercises and the instructions are from Joe. No discussion can be had on if he was wrong or right because Contrology is his creation. The creator can’t be wrong. You can disagree with him, but you cannot change Contrology and call it Contrology.

What have we been doing since the Project began? This year consisted of countless readings of the book Return to Life, meetings, write-ups, and experimentation with what we were dissecting. Again, we are all trained, but we all still had questions. At times, things just didn’t add up. We questioned things like why every teacher given the same body to teach an exercise to, like the teaser, would the result would be different. Some would have them in the V, some parallel. Some would be balanced on the sits bones. Some would be back on the Sacrum. Some would roll up into teaser. Some would pop up into teaser. List goes on and on. We wanted to know if Joe was given that body what the teaser would look like. This was our thought process. (i.e. in our studio, if 4 people were doing the teaser, they would all be utilizing the same directions or variation of the directions, but doing their own exercise / work. It could not and will not possibly look the same on any of them.) Often, we fall back on teaching the body in front of us as an excuse for an unknown answer, but is it really? Do we even know what Joe intended or are we just going on what we were told by others? This was our thought process. It could not possibly look the same let alone look like a picture or a video. As the year progressed, we have incorporated our findings into how we teach our non-teacher clients. We have found by returning to Joe’s original intentions, the bodies and the brains respond with lightning speed.

What can you expect to learn at the Project Return Workshop? You can expect two days of exploring Joe’s intentions, understanding how the contents are consistent and never contradicted, learn how to use the principles to teach every exercise without written instructions, explore validation from outside sources. Most importantly, you will understand that all Joe wanted us to know was in that very small book. His work was completed! This is work for you to explore and for us to teach you the success we have had with our clients and within specific body types. We will challenge you to start to become your own mind, as there was a reason Joe’s clients came to the gym and worked out themselves. Whether on the mat or any apparatus understand that it all comes from the same place.