Lisa Orig, CPT
Creative Director, Upside-Down Dance, Dance Educator, Certified Pilates Teacher through the Pilates Method Alliance. Full Certified STOTT PILATES™ Instructor, Certified STOTT PILATES Instructor Trainer, Master Teacher Trainer Upside-Down Pilates

BA Dance with an emphasis in Performance/Choreography from The Dance Center of Columbia College Chicago. MFA Dance Candidate at the University of Hawaii Manoa. 

Dynamic Dancer: Kinesthetic Anatomy and Biomechanics of the Spine and Trunk, Dynamic Dancer: Kinesthetic Anatomy and Biomechanics of the Limbs with Irene Dowd of NY.

Master Teacher Trainer Upside-Down Pilates, LLC

Lisa began dancing at the age of three. In the local YWCA of Lincoln, NE she did her first Plié’s and Tendu’s. At the age of nine she began working with The Lincoln Midwest Ballet Company under the direction of Shari Shell-True. There she performed ten seasons.

After moving to Chicago Mrs. Orig performed for Shirley Mordine, Rennie Harris, Kathy Young, Jan Erkert, Steve Paxton, Molly Shanahan, David Gordon, David Dorfman, Cindy Unger, The Anatomical Theater, Brian Jeffery, Juan Estrada, Sasha Tretter, Adriana Durant, The Chicago Moving Company, and Simone Forti. In November 2000 she had the honor of performing as a Community Cast Member with Mikhail Baryshnikov and The White Oak Dance Project in their performance of Past/Forward.

Mrs. Orig is the Creative Director of Upside-Down Dance. This professional modern dance company is proud partners at The ARTS at Marks Garage. You can see the company performing on Oahu at The ARTS at Marks Garage three times per year.
Mrs. Orig completed her Comprehensive Pilates Certification in the heart of Chicago’s Gold Coast. Her continuing education in the body arts took her to New York to study with Irene Dowd. Ideas descending from Mabel E. Todd and Lulu E. Sweigard have been passed along through Irene Dowd creating a revolutionary perspective of the human body, how it works, and how to train it. In 2003 Lisa received her full certification in the STOTT PILATES method of body conditioning, and in 2005 became a certified STOTT PILATES Instructor Trainer. In 2007 Lisa began the Upside-Down Pilates Teacher Training Program with goal of creating creative and problem solving teachers who have a strong base in Functional Anatomy and Basic Biomechanics.
In support of the Pilates Method Alliance Lisa Orig is also a Certified Pilates Teacher.

Mrs. Orig is currently in pursuit of an MFA in Dance from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. There she will explore the work of Laban and Bartenieff. She plans to being incorporating these ideas into her work as a movement teacher.  Her Masters Thesis "Posture Lab" will be presented in October of 2009.

My  Philosophy
Your brain is the most powerful “muscle” in your body! By retraining your thoughts about how your body functions you can retrain your muscles to fire in a more safe, efficient, and effective manner. This can lead you out of pain if you are in it or bring your body into peak physical and mental condition. Please remember, we are only teachers. Every good teacher is obsolete in the end. You will only get out of Pilates what you are willing to put into it.

My Mission
The mission of Upside-Down Pilates is to provide individuals with the knowledge, encouragement, and drive to transform and maintain a strong and supple body. In turn, leading them to a long, productive, and healthy life. Through the use of Upside-Down Pilates, anatomical knowledge, and years of research in training the body, Upside-Down Pilates strives to free people held captive in their own bodies, as well as, challenge athletes to go further than ever thought possible.