Orly Oren's Bio

When I started my journey with Pilates, I was yet to discover where it would take me. In fact, it all started at a young age. As a child, I was always restless and couldn't pass a minute sitting or standing still. I was also heavily asthmatic and would be hospitalize with severe attacks and pneumonia almost every week.

On my first week of first grade, I was injured in a car accident. My scull fractured and I broke my hip joint. Fortunately, my parents took the doctors' advice and signed me up for ballet and gymnastics lessons, in order to help me rehabilitate my body from the injuries, and improve my range of motion, and so my world became the training hall and the training itself.

After my military service, I transformed my love for dancing into my profession and continued training until I injured myself again on top of my previous injuries from my childhood: 3 Prolapsed back discs, 2 prolapsed neck discs, a tear in both knees, recurring sprains, a muscle tear on my shoulder, 2 vertebrate and more. I managed to rehabilitate myself completely with the help of the classic Pilates method, which I discovered while I was traveling in the US searching for a master who would teach me Pilates.

I underwent my first training in Israel. As I still felt I had a lot to learn, I searched for another source of knowledge. I found teachers who studied and were ordained by Joseph Pilates, who trained many teachers for many years. I met Kathy Grant, Lolita San Miguel; I practiced Pilates at Romana Kriznovska's studio and received my certificate through their students.

My expertise is to teach, rehabilitate and train teachers - all through the classic Pilates method!

I love my work and see it as my life mission.

Orly's Interview

What made you go to KSG in the first place? How long did you stay?

When I was at the PMA conference, I bought some videos of the elders. I watched them all and fell in love with Kathy. I went to her studio for 3 different periods, each time for a week. She would let me stay at the studio for a full day. I loved the mat work she did for the dancers and the 100 that sounded very instrumental.

Did KSG ever make up an exercise for you? If so, what was it? Do you still do it?

I don’t know. She made me do the roll-up hanging from a strap on the Cadillac. It was true, it was difficult for me to do the roll-up. I don’t know how did she knew that because she hadn’t seen me do the roll-up before.

Do you recall a correction she gave to you? Or some comments she had about you and your body?

Sure. A lot. “Let your thighs kiss each other.” I still use this one.

She said, “Your body is a big mess. I can’t do anything for you. First, learn the exercises and then we can speak.”

Do you have a personal memory you would like to share?

I have a whole book!!!!

What do you think is an important thing for people to remember about Kathy?

She was funny, smart and intuitive in a magical way. I was afraid of her.

How do you think Kathy would feel about the current atmosphere of the Pilates world?

I think she would like to see people following the correct manner. Not so much the modern stuff. And she would like to honor Joe’s spirit. For instance, Kathy never did videos or published anything online. I think she would think it is too much.

If you could ask Kathy one more question, what would it be?

How are you? Would you change anything? Can you explain 10,000 exercises?

Do you have a personal memory you would like to share?

I came to Kathy after the conference. She gave me the phone number of the studio, but she did not answer so I showed up at the studio. At that time she was teaching, but she let me in and we started talking. She understood that I felt magical so she continued to talk about Pilates and Joe. I stayed that day for about two hours and we kept talking and talking. And in those two hours I learned about Pilates more than I ever learned before even though I was part of the biggest Pilates school in Israel. I told her I wanted her to be my teacher. She said this, “Your body is a big mess. I can’t do anything for you. First, learn the exercises and then we can speak.” She also mentioned that she didn’t have all the equipment. I understood that she didn’t want me to stay at the studio, but she invited me to come the day after and I worked with you, Blossom. I came the next day. I worked with you for 30 minutes on the roll-up hanging with the straps sweating like hell. I went out to the streets of New York hot and sweaty as I never before in my life.

I learned from her that a session could be 20 min or three hours. I remember one client saying, “Kathy, I have to go,” and Kathy said, “Well, you haven’t finished your work.” I still do that at my studio and ask people not to look at their watch. She told me about her "Rusty times" which was amazing. Also she didn’t let me to pay. She said it was her gift to the people in Israel because she could see that I understood the method.

I kept in touch with her for a long time after I opened my own studio. I called her and told her about the studio. She always listened to me. It was awesome.

She said the Pilates names for the exercises were not sexy. What you see is what you get. This is why it is easy to remember. I still use this one, the roll-up.