Creative & juicy Pilates workout (Jane Koffman)
I am passionate about teaching basic Pilates moves, then layering – discovering effective & creative versions of starter Pilates exercises. Ultimately, within each exercise, participants feel a beautiful burn, whether doing the basic or more advanced versions. We appropriately stretch, and this flows us into our next exercise.
Chilled background music guides our creative-flowing workout.
When we’re done, participants feel shaky, stretched and refreshed. Like they have been transported to another world for 60mins.
To me, in my Pilates classes, participants came to have fun, learn something new, be happily distracted and have a workout.
This is how I love to teach Pilates. Welcome to Pilates with Love, guided by Jane.
“Move like a dancer” reformer class (Saretha Olivier)
Are you up for a challenge and want to try something different? This Pilates reformer workout focuses on strengthening feet, ankles, legs, core, and back and improves flexibility. ALL of which are requirements for dance! Then add some fun choreography plus jumping to music while using the reformer. Whether you are a dancer, dance teacher, Pilates teacher or just want an interesting and challenging workout, you’ll benefit from this session.
Embodied Journey Yoga class (Montana Davies-Phippen)
Inspired by one of Montana’s most profound Indian teachers, Deep Ji, this 90-minute hatha vinyasa-style practice is an embodied journey through the 8 limbs of yoga. Opening with a simple meditation, followed by a deeply meditative and traditional asana (movement) sequence, and ending with a restful savasana.
The Mind Body Gap (Gyde von Wlassak)
In this two-hour seminar, we focus on the concept of closing the “mind-body gap”, restoring coherence between your fast-adapting mind and the body’s ancient survival responses. Often, the body remains stressed and reactive even when the mind has already adapted to the situation.
Through breathwork, fascia release, and targeted movement exercises, including partner work inspired by osteopathic principles, we will treat specific body areas that play a key role in regulating the autonomic nervous system. This hands-on partner work allows participants to experience the effects of co-regulation and deepen their understanding of nervous system balance. Alongside these techniques, we will cover the neurobiological theory behind why and how these methods help restore regulation.
The reformer as a therapeutic tool – for the client and the teacher (Louise Knoop)
The reformer can look like a resistance tool while also being deemed “inadequate” in terms of resistance training. So why do we use the reformer and how can we it to suit our teaching needs and best serve those of our clients?
This workshop will look at how the reformer can use resistance as assistance in addressing the client’s range of motion and sense of safety. It will also, very importantly, look at how the reformer can help the teacher teach more by teaching less.
Subjects we will touch on – burnout, chronic pain, women’s hormonal health, injury rehab, movement recovery, and nervous system regulation.
The Art of Moving Freely (Bianca Schulz)
Move with freedom, explore with curiosity.
This mindful movement session invites you to explore creative expression with curiosity, tuning into the subtle language of your own body. Through guided yet intuitive explorations, you’ll discover new pathways of moving and deepen your understanding of how body and mind work together.
Build it Up with Props (Shannon Lilley)
In this one-hour Pilates mat class, we invite all levels of ‘clients’ to join. We start basic, build on that movement, progress from beginner to advanced, while using props to assist and challenge. This session is great for instructors who don’t have the option to offer specific levels in their group classes.
Reformer Flow (Renee Watson)
This Pilates reformer flow class is a mindful movement practice that blends strength, stability, and fluidity. With guided breath and intentional sequencing, the reformer becomes a tool for deeper body awareness, balance, and ease. In this class, Renee invites you to move with presence, cultivating both inner calm and physical vitality.
Conscious Connected Breathwork (Leila Sadien)
In this session, we will explore the practice of Conscious Connected Breathwork – a simple yet profound technique that invites participants to lie down, relax, and use gentle sound and breath to access a deep meditative state, known as the theta brainwave state.
Unlike traditional breathing techniques that focus on mechanics or control, conscious connected breathing opens a pathway to the nervous system itself. By rhythmically engaging the diaphragm and expanding the breath through the whole body, the practice activates the parasympathetic system, allowing profound states of relaxation and repair.
This method offers a powerful complement to physical work. The breath mobilises fascial tissues, and when practised regularly has a whole myriad of benefits for whole being health. Just as importantly, it helps to release the emotional patterns that often underlie chronic stress, pain, and postural holding.
This introduction will include a simple theoretical understanding of the technique as well as a guided experiential practice. Participants will leave with a felt sense of how conscious connected breath can shift the energetic and emotional patterns that so often manifest in the body
Integrated Pilates (Russell Cummings)
INTEGRATED PILATES – an Advanced level Pilates class, taking ALL YOU KNOW, HAVE LEARNT & combining Integrated movement, flow, choreography, transitions and links. The links are integral to progressing a Mat class from boring to why am I sweating? Why can’t you delve into muscle isolation without sustaining the integrity of each exercise? Think about it. Each original Mat work exercise was developed with intent, but years ago. So many versions have evolved, and I invite you to try mine. As an ex-professional dancer with 30 years behind me, 20 of them teaching Pilates, I think 90 minutes with me can only be interesting. I’ve learnt from phenomenal Teachers and would love this opportunity to give back. I look forward to meeting everyone attending this Conference that has sustained itself for 18 years. That speaks volumes alone.
Ride the Recoil (Carla Armour)
You know that ‘next-day cottony feeling’ after a really targeted Reformer class? You can literally feel it in your bones… all the tiny fibres connecting your muscles feel innervated? The kind of class where you are totally focussed and totally engaged from start to finish? Have you had that feeling in a class when you just know intuitively that you are working to your deepest and the feeling is, well, deliciously deep?
Well, Riding the Recoil is designed to deliver just that! By using the smallest part of the Reformer, The Stopper, and my relentless attention to detail, I take participants through a series of classical and innovative exercises with flow and focus. Propelled by various breath sequences and moving from your sustained core engagement, we aim to stay aware, firing up all those proprioceptors as we ride the recoil of the spring with each controlled repetition,… at times, staying ‘Off the Stopper’ or ‘Just kissing the Stopper like a sleeping baby.’
This 70 minute Reformer class followed by 20 minutes to field questions and feedback, it promises to deliver many innovative morsels that instructors can add to their teaching, while leaving with a renewed understanding of working alongside the original Contrology Principles. But one thing for sure, this session is guaranteed to be juicy, fiery and exquisitely executed.
Who should attend?
Anyone whether beginner or advanced who wants a deep experience of the recoil and understand innovative ways to use the stopper.
“What’s Light Got To Do With it?” A new paradigm in health. (Rachel Maurice)
This talk invites you to step beyond the conventional biochemical model of health and disease and into the subatomic realm—where light emerges as the most fundamental signal governing every process in the body. We’ll explore how light, not chemistry, sits at the top of the biological hierarchy, orchestrating cellular behavior, gene expression, and healing. By shifting our perspective from molecules to photons, we open the door to a radically different understanding of health—and with it, a new generation of healing modalities rooted in physics rather than just pharmacology.
The Body as Communicating Tool – Pain, De-Armoring, and the Subtle Body (Leila Sadien)
For over 25 years, I lived with cluster headaches – an excruciating condition that became my greatest teacher and initiator. I came to understand this not just as a medical illness, but as a shamanic sickness, guiding me into profound initiations in listening, surrender, and transformation. My journey revealed that approaching the body purely from a 3D, physical perspective often misses the deeper truth: the body’s pain is an expression of energetic, emotional, and even ancestral origins.
This talk invites practitioners to expand their understanding of pain, moving beyond symptom treatment toward a multidimensional perspective. We will explore how the body communicates its needs through subtle whispers long before it “shouts” in pain, and how modern life’s pace and distractions dull our ability to hear these early signals. We’ll also unpack the concept of armoring – the ways fascia, muscles, and tissues hold unprocessed emotions and trauma, and how this stored tension shapes both posture and health.
In this interactive two-hour session, we will:
Explore the body’s pain signals as a language of the soul and psyche, not just the physiology.
Understand the role of armoring and how physical tension often reflects deeper, unprocessed emotional patterns.
Learn how to support clients in tuning into subtle sensations before they escalate into pain or injury.
Experience a fascial unwinding and conscious movement process to connect with the body’s hidden messages.
Deepen into a guided breathwork journey to uncover and release the emotions discovered through movement.
This session blends personal story, practitioner insight, and embodied practice, offering participants both conceptual understanding and experiential tools to take into their own work with clients.
Building Blocks to Advanced Repertoire (Theo Botha)
Take your Reformer teaching to the next level! In this 2-hour workshop, Theo shows you how to break down advanced movements into simple, teachable building blocks. Gain the confidence to guide your clients safely through complex exercises while deepening your understanding of progressive Reformer work. Packed with practical tips, demonstrations, and hands-on insights, this session is your fast track from foundational to advanced repertoire. Elevate your teaching, empower your clients, and unlock the full potential of your Reformer classes!
Dialogue & Meditation: Bridging the inner and outer worlds (Bryan Mac)
THE ART OF EMBODIMENT
This session with Bryan stands out by weaving together conscious dialogue and meditation, creating a balance between inner reflection and shared expression. Rather than focusing only on silence or conversation, it bridges the two—helping you uncover insights within yourself while practicing presence in connection with others. This allows for both personal transformation and collective growth, making the experience deeply practical, embodied, and uniquely transformative.
Discussion panel
What’s on the horizon?
Guided by Bryan Mac, this interactive dialogue between the panel (Rachel Maurice, Gyde von Wlassak, Leila Sadien, and Renee Watson) and conference attendees promises to be thought-provoking, stimulating, and evolving. Let’s take this opportunity to open our minds, to explore new ideas, cross over of disciplines, and gain insight to each other’s expertise.
Reformer Meets Fascia Movement (Anneke)
“Strength, fluidity, and ease—redefined”
Discover how deliberately training fascia movement qualities offers you a fresh way of approaching Reformer Pilates. Experience the transformative power of fascia by exploring the intricate relationship between fascia and movement. We will focus on the fascial qualities of adaptability, tensional strength, multidimensionality, fluidity and glide, and how to seamlessly integrate them into your existing Reformer classes. The workshop incorporates the principles of FAMO Fascial Movement® (previously known as Slings Myofascial Training) to improve resilience and vitality in both body and mind. You will learn innovative techniques to stimulate and strengthen fascia, to promote glide and optimizing movement efficiency and body awareness.
Innovation in movement means evolving how we move and teach; it’s a shift closer to how intentional movement impacts our life and indeed benefits our daily life. It is staying curious to new possibilities for whole body, and body-minded wellbeing. I hope you can join us to explore this topic on the Reformer.
“Rooted in the Stars, Flowing with the Elements” (Kerry Lyn Marais)
In this workshop, we’ll journey into the rich world of Chinese Astrology, exploring how your animal sign element hold clues to your personality, energetic patterns, and even your physical constitution.
But this isn’t just theory — we’ll weave these insights into Yin Yoga and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), connecting the cosmic with the corporeal. You’ll learn how your inner nature — shaped by your birth element and zodiac sign — influences your energy flow, emotional tendencies, and the meridian systems in your body.
Together, we’ll practice Yin Yoga sequences tailored to balance the elements within you, support the organs connected to your sign, and bring harmony to your Qi.
Move through the familiar to the unfamiliar (Samantha Hozack)
In this Vinyasa class, Sam moves through the known to bring us into an explosive experience of the unknown.
Same same but different!
We’ll find opening and length whilst we balance.
A fluid circular flow into grace and strength.
“More than just exercises :
Integrated Reformer – exploring the multidimensional teamwork of the body as a Whole.” (Christy Smith)
Traditional exercises generally target one body part, but All movement of the body is a team effort!
Come and explore ways to use the reformer (and some common Pilates props) to enhance and enrich movement experience, using the multi-faceted ways that the brain and body interacts with itself in Real-life movement.
Especially for those bodies that have had Pilates experience and are looking to add a more multi-dimensional element to their work.
Biomes, Balance, and Face It (Nicole Sherwin & Renee Watson)
Nicole Sherwin, founder of the award-winning African superfood skincare brand Eco Diva Natural, invites you into a luminous journey where skin health, gut health, and mental wellbeing intertwine. With over a decade of experience exploring the wisdom of superfoods, holistic healing, and self-care rituals, Nicole shares how the body’s inner balance reflects outwardly in glowing skin, vibrant energy, and radiant confidence.
Her talk reveals the intimate connection between the microbiome, the nervous system, and the skin barrier—and how daily choices, from what we eat to how we nurture our emotions, can transform our vitality. More than just beauty, Nicole’s philosophy is an invitation to kindness: to ourselves, to our bodies, and to the world we live in.
Join her for this soulful and practical exploration of rituals that restore balance, ignite energy, and awaken your natural glow from the inside out.
This session is a gentle practice that combines simple exercises and mindfulness to release tension, improve circulation, and support healthy muscle tone in the face. We’ll also explore how posture affects jaw tension, facial muscles and fascia, and overall radiance. With easy, anatomy-informed techniques, you’ll learn how to incorporate face exercises into your movement routines
Core Calibration (Carla Armour)
Guided by over 22 years as a certified Pilates instructor, I have developed the 7 Diaphragm Core Calibration Method (7DCC Method)—a practice designed to cultivate deep self-awareness and a true toe-to-crown core connection. My passion lies in staying true to the principles of Pilates while offering clients accessible tools to achieve precision, connection, and flow.
Why is this important? Too often, “engaging the core” is reduced to switching on a few superficial muscles. Once movement begins, that connection quickly unravels, leading to poor form, reliance on asymmetrical habits, and recurring injuries. Beyond the physical, our bodies also hold trauma—sometimes carried across generations—keeping us locked in cycles of fear, tension, fatigue, anxiety, and dis-ease.
The 7D Core Calibration Method works gently and sequentially through the body’s seven diaphragms—from the soles of the feet to the crown of the head—awakening, releasing, and reconnecting each zone in a domino-like flow. Supported by prescriptive breath sequences, this process creates balance, alignment, and an inner spaciousness. It brings us into a state of calm BodyMind regulation, opening the way for intelligent, sustainable movement.
In this workshop, you will experience:
• “Befriending Me” practice — a self-exploration with movement, touch, and breathwork to develop ease, awareness, and compassion for your body and emotional state.
• Interactive presentation — exploring the anatomy of the ‘7 diaphragms’, touchpoints of the ‘Deep Front Line’, understanding the concepts of awakening, release and engagement of each alongside their related zones or ‘anatomical junctions’.
• Embodied practice — a seven-minute Core Calibration session to experience the method first-hand and discover how to integrate it into your own classes or personal practice.
You’ll come away with practical tools to support ‘Positive Pilates Posture’, confidence, and weight management, while fostering self-compassion, resilience, and creativity.
Who should attend? Anyone who wants to experience comfort and joy in their own skin.
Pre- and Postnatal Modifications and Progressions on the Reformer (Colette de Vries)
Pregnancy may change the body, but it doesn’t have to take the power out of a workout. We’re thrilled to welcome Colette de Vries, who will share her expertise on how to safely and effectively challenge pre- and postnatal clients on the reformer. She’ll explore how to select appropriate modifications without excluding these clients from the class, helping them feel strong, confident, and fully engaged. Her focus is on empowering expecting and new mums to get the most out of every session, maintaining the essence of the workout while making adjustments that keep them safe, supported, and inspired.
Self-Transformation & Yoga (Montana Davies-Phippen)
How can the ancient practice of yoga help us in our modern lives? This immersive workshop invites you to explore beyond the postures and to discover yoga’s hidden philosophies that can support us in living a more fulfilling life. Through mindful movement, meditation, and guided reflection, you will explore how the holistic system of yoga can be a tool for releasing old patterns, cultivating resilience and opening a space for transformation. Whether you are on the first steps of your journey, or have long been treading the path, this all-levels session invites you to step onto the mat with curiosity and leave with clarity, new perspectives, and a deeper understanding of “self”.